IAL  WORK 

IN  THE 

LIGHT  OF  HISTORY 


STUART  ALFRED  QUEEN,  (Vi 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


LIPPINCOTTS  SOCIOLOGICAL  SERIES 

EDITED  BY  EDWARD  GARY  HAYES.  PH.D..  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  SOCIOLOGY,   UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


SOCIAL  WORK   IN  THE 
LIGHT  OF  HISTORY 


BY 

STUART  ALFRED  QUEEN,  PH.D. 

PROFESSOR  Or  SOCIOLOGY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  KANSAS 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  LONDON 
J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY 

1922 


COPYRIGHT   1922.   BY  J.    B.   LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 


PRINTED  BY  J.    B.   LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 

AT  THE  WASHINGTON  SQUARE  PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA,  U.   S.    A. 


Colleg* 
Library 

HV 


Q3ls 
EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

ALTHOUGH  much  has  been  written  upon  the  subject 
of  social  work,  until  now  there  has  been  in  English  no 
adequate  presentation  of  the  subject  in  the  light  of  history. 
Nothing  available  takes  the  place  filled  by  the  present  book 
of  Professor  Queen.  It  places  the  subject  of  social  service 
in  the  perspective  of  historical  development,  sets  forth  the 
practical  lessons  of  experience  which  the  long  past  has 
enforced,  and  reveals  the  tendencies  which  must  be  under- 
stood by  those  who  wish  to  participate  in  the  next  steps  of 
progress  in  this  department  of  human  endeavor. 

This  is  the  first  volume  to  appear  in  the  Lippincott 
sociological  series.  This  series  is  designed  to  present  a  sys- 
tematic summary  of  the  most  substantial  results  that  have 
been  achieved  in  the  different  subdivisions  of  sociology. 
The  volumes  fall  naturally  into  two  divisions.  The  books 
included  in  the  first  group  will  be  devoted  to  pure  science, 
that  is  to  the  endeavor  to  know  and  understand  the  facts 
of  social  life,  undiverted  by  any  other  aim.  The  books 
of  the  second  group  will  be  devoted  to  practical  sociology, 
and  will  deal  with  topics  which  have  obvious  relation  to 
welfare  and  progress.  However,  the  books  of  the  first 
group  will  set  forth  teachings  that,  in  many  instances, 
have  quite  as  far-reaching  practical  importance  as  any 
which  will  be  contained  in  volumes  that  have  an  obviously 
practical  aim.  And  the  books  of  the  second  group,  though 
dealing  with  subjects  which  compel  a  practical  interest, 
will  be  written  in  a  thoroughly  scientific  spirit. 

It  is  planned  to  include  in  the  first  group  volumes  upon 
"Social  Evolution,"  'The  Biological  Factors  in  Social 
Causation,"  "Social  Psychology,"  "Groups  and  Group 

5 

2072699 


6  EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

Contacts,"  and  "Social  Values  and  Valuations."  Inter- 
mediate between  the  two  groups  will  be  a  volume  on 
"Social  Progress"  intended  to  set  forth  the  more  general 
applications  of  sociological  knowledge.  In  addition  to  the 
present  volume  on  Social  Work  in  the  Light  of  History, 
books  that  will  fall  in  the  second  group  are  being  prepared 
on  important  subjects,  including  "  Sociology  and  Edu- 
cation," "  Problems  of  Population,"  and  "  Criminology." 
While  the  series  when  completed  will  present  the  logi- 
cal and  systematic  character  just  described,  the  order  of 
publication  will  depend  upon  the  time  when  the  different 
volumes  are  brought  to  completion  by  their  authors.  It  is 
the  intention  to  preserve  the  freedom  of  the  writers  to  work 
under  the  conditions  by  which  they  can  achieve  the  best 
results.  Each  book  will  be  complete  in  itself,  but  planned 
with  reference  to  all  the  others,  so  that  the  series  as  a 
whole  will  fulfill  as  nearly  as  possible  the  ideal  of  a  logical 
summary  of  the  product  of  the  intellectual  movement 
which  goes  by  the  name  of  sociology. 

EDWARD  CARY  HAYES. 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS. 


PREFACE 

IN  preparing  the  following  pages  for  the  press  I  have 
had  several  groups  of  readers  in  mind,  especially  college 
students  and  interested  citizens  who  wish,  without  delv- 
ing deeply  into  the  subject,  to  have  some  definite  notion 
as  to  the  significance  of  social  work.  I  hope  to  put  them 
on  the  track  of  answers  to  the  questions  which  I  know 
they  are  asking,  questions  such  as  these:  Just  what  is 
meant  by  the  current  phrase  "  social  work  "  ?  Is  it  the 
same  as  philanthropy,  charity,  welfare  work  or  uplift? 
Why  do  we  have  so  many  social  agencies  with  their  numer- 
ous employes  and  their  constant  appeals  for  funds?  Are 
they  really  needed?  What  do  they  accomplish?  Whither 
is  all  this  stir  about  social  service  leading  us  ? 

It  has  become  my  conviction  that  the  most  valuable 
contribution  toward  answering  these  very  pertinent  ques- 
tions could  be  made  by  an  historical  review.  No  attempt 
has  been  made  to  produce  an  original  contribution  to 
knowledge  of  any  subdivision  of  history,  and  there 
has  been  relatively  little  use  of  original  documents. 
Instead  I  have  chiefly  aimed  to  coordinate  and  to  make 
available  the  fruits  of  research  which  are  contained  in 
such  works  as  Lallemand,  Histoire  de  ta  Charitc;  Uhlhorn, 
Die  Christliche  Liebestdtigkeit ;  Clay,  Medieval  Hospitals 
of  England;  Bosanquet,  Social  Work  in  London;  Webb, 
Poor  Law  Policy;  Ashley,  Introduction  to  English  Eco- 
nomic History;  Hayes,  Political  and  Social  History  of 
Modern  Europe,  Proceedings  of  the  National  Confer- 
ence of  Social  Work.  At  the  end  of  each  chapter  will  be 
found  some  of  the  more  important  sources  of  information. 
Through  these  the  careful  student  can  check  the  accuracy 

T 


8  PREFACE 

of  most  of  the  statements  made.  These  short  bibliogra- 
phies will  furnish  satisfactory  supplementary  reading. 

A  distinctive  feature  which  differs  from  traditional 
usage  is  the  working  back  from  the  present  instead  of 
presenting  a  chronological  narrative.  In  taking  this  course 
I  have  thought  to  make  the  historical  account  better  serve 
the  purpose  of  helping  to  understand  contemporary  social 
work.  I  hope  that  the  book  will  show  the  possibility  of 
relating  social  work  to  general  social  and  economic  de- 
velopment, illustrating  the  unity  of  the  social  process.  'It 
should  emphasize  the  usefulness  of  history  as  a  technique 
for  interpreting  the  present  and  anticipating  the  future. 
And  it  should  test  the  wisdom  of  studying  history  back- 
ward in  the  service  of  a  particular  purpose. 

I  am  happy  to  state  that  the  manuscript  has  been  care- 
fully reviewed  by  a  number  of  representative  persons  who 
have  offered  valuable  suggestions.  I  wish  especially  to 
acknowledge  the  advice  and  assistance  of  my  present  and 
former  colleagues,  Edwin  H.  Sutherland,  Jesse  F.  Steiner, 
Harry  M.  Varrell  and  Mary  P.  Wheeler. 

BOSTON,  APRIL,  1922.  STUART  A.  QUEEN. 


INTRODUCTION 

Social  work  has  never  been  a  static  thing.  It  has 
always  been  growing,  developing,  changing;  sometimes 
for  better,  sometimes  for  worse.  But  probably  never  be- 
fore have  those  engaged  in  this  field  of  service  been  so 
keenly  aware  of  the  fact  that  changes  are  taking  place. 
Whether,  even  now,  they  are  able  to  interpret  the  signs  of 
the  times  is,  of  course,  an  open  question.  But  surely  it  is 
worth  while  to  try  to  understand  what  is  going  on,  for 
only  thus  can  the  future  be  planned  with  intelligence. 

It  should  be  obvious  that  in  order  to  understand  the 
present  and  to  anticipate  the  future  we  must  examine  the 
past.  But  before  turning  back  into  our  yesterdays,  it  will 
be  profitable  to  look  about  and  form  a  tentative  estimate  of 
today.  Then  while  studying  the  developments  of  earlier 
generations  we  shall  know  what  to  look  for.  Having  a 
preliminary  idea  of  our  present  status  and  trend,  we  can 
ask  of  the  past  these  questions :  Are  these  things  new  or 
have  they  been  experienced  before?  Are  they  part  of  a 
movement  toward  some  definite  goal,  or  do  they  indicate 
a  groping  in  the  dark,  or  possibly  mere  drifting?  Are 
the  changes  that  have  occurred  such  as  we  would  denom- 
inate "  progress  "  or  are  they  rather  retrogression? 

This  manner  of  studying  history  backward  may  seem 
a  little  unusual  to  some  readers,  but  it  appears  to  be  in 
harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  best  modern  historians. 
Indeed,  an  examination  of  their  viewpoint  will  constitute 
a  helpful  approach  to  our  own  study. 

James  Harvey  Robinson  says  of  history,  "  The  one 
thing  that  it  ought  to  do,  but  has  not  yet  effectively  done, 
is  to  help  us  understand  ourselves,  and  our  fellows, 

9 


xo  INTRODUCTION 

and  the  problems  and  prospects  of  mankind."  If  we  had 
an  adequate  understanding  of  the  past,  we  should  be  able  to 
interpret  our  present  and  to  anticipate  our  future,  "  not 
because  the  past  would  furnish  precedents  of  conduct,  but 
because  our  conduct  would  be  based  upon  a  perfect  com- 
prehension of  existing  conditions,  founded  on  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  the  past." 

Charles  Seignobos  urges  the  cultivation  of  more  inti- 
mate relations  between  the  historians  and  the  social 
scientists.  Already  they  have  much  in  common  both  as 
to  subject  matter  and  method.  History  that  is  a  bare 
recital  of  "  facts  "  is  limited  in  value  as  in  interest.  Social 
science  that  ignores  the  historical  background  of  present 
problems  can  never  offer  effective  solutions. 

Karl  Lamprecht  emphasizes  the  importance  of  study- 
ing the  experiences  of  large  groups  of  people  instead  of 
centering  our  attention  on  a  relatively  small  number  of 
"  great  men."  He  would  give  a  minimum  of  attention 
to  incidents  that  are  more  spectacular  than  influential. 
The  mere  chronology  of  disparate  events  would  disappear 
in  the  effort  to  trace  a  single,  coherent  process,  in  which 
economic,  political,  religious  and  ethical  elements  are 
inextricably  interwoven. 

In  the  spirit  of  these  three  representative  historians 
we  shall  undertake  to  trace  the  developments  which  are 
taking  place  in  social  work.  Among  the  developments  to 
be  traced  are  the  following :  ( I )  increasing  emphasis  upon 
prevention  of  social  ills,  with  relatively  less  concern  about 
cure;  (2)  increasing  correlation  of  social  agencies,  with 
the  community  rather  than  the  individual,  as  the  object 
of  attention;  (3)  a  movement  toward  more  and  more 
governmental  support  and  administration  of  agencies 
previously  maintained  by  private  philanthropists;  (4)  the 
growth  of  more  intelligent  standards  by  which  social 


INTRODUCTION  u 

workers  and  their  organizations  are  being  put  to  the  test 
to  see  precisely  what  they  are  doing,  to  measure  their 
effectiveness,  and  to  evaluate  their  achievements;  (5)  the 
provision  of  special  training  for  social  work  so  that  it 
may  become  a  profession,  resting  upon  a  scientific  basis, 
requiring  thorough  preparation,  offering  opportunity  for 
specialization,  and  substituting  dignified  professional 
services  for  charity;  (6)  the  demonstration  by  events  that 
the  future  of  social  work  depends  more  on  general  eco- 
nomic and  social  developments  than  on  the  social  work 
of  the  past. 

An  effort  will  be  made  to  relate  social  work  in  its 
development  to  other  aspects  of  the  social  process.  We 
shall  start  from  the  present  and  reach  further  and  further 
into  the  past  instead  of  starting  at  the  beginning.  We  do 
not  aspire  to  the  exhaustiveness  of  an  all-inclusive  nar- 
rative. We  are  simply  endeavoring  to  understand  and 
present  so  much  of  the  past  of  social  work  as  may  be 
needed  to  evaluate  its  present  and  to  direct  its  future. 
If  we  have  included  some  items  of  minor  significance  and 
omitted  others  of  greater  importance,  we  have  erred  in 
judgment.  But  as  to  the  basis  of  selection,  there  should 
be  no  doubt. 

Throughout  the  narrative  we  shall  devote  more  atten- 
tion to  changing  attitudes  toward  the  problems  of  human 
maladjustment  than  to  the  details  of  social  work  pro- 
grams. In  so  far  as  we  do  discuss  policies  and  methods 
it  will  be  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  the  points  of  view 
that  lay  back  of  them.  The  justification  of  this  emphasis 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  in  the  attitude  of  the  public,  the 
Zeitgeist,  that  we  shall  find  our  best  clue  to  the  future  of 
social  work. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PREFACE 7 

INTRODUCTION 9 

PART  I 

PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  SOCIAL  WORK 

ourra  PAGE 

I.    PROFESSIONALIZING   SOCIAL  WORK 15 

II.    CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES 31 

III.  PREVENTIVE   AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK 50 

PART  II 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY  HUMANITARIANISM 

IV.  THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION  AND  SOCIAL  WORK 73 

V.    INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK 90 

VI.   THE  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT 103 

VII.   HOUSING  REFORM 119 

VIII.   THE  SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT 130 

IX.   THE  CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT 145 


PART  III 
THE  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW 

X.   THE  BACKGROUND  OF  THE  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW 163 

XI.   THE  DEVELOFMENT  OF  THE  ENGLISH  Poo*  LAW 183 

XII.    TRANSCENDING  THE  POOR  LAW 200 

13 


I4  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PACK 

PART  IF 
THE  MEDIEVAL  CHURCH  AND  PHILANTHROPY 

XIII.  THE  RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING 213 

XIV.  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES 230 

XV.   THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL 249 


PART  V 
MUTUAL  AID  IN  MEDIEVAL  COMMUNITIES  ] 

XVI.    MANOR  AND  PARISH 265 

XVII.   THE  MEDIEVAL  GILDS 281 

XVIII.    THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS 292 

XIX.    SUMMARY  AND'  CONCLUSION 307 

INDEX 3*3 


PART  I 
PRESENT  TENDENCIES  IN  SOCIAL  WORK 


CHAPTER  I 
PROFESSIONALIZING  SOCIAL  WORK 

WHAT  is  social  work?  To  give  a  simple  definition 
ought  to  be  easy  for  one  who  claims  this  as  his  profession. 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  field  of  social  service  includes 
so  many  and  so  varied  activities  that  the  question  is  very 
difficult  to  answer.  Caring  for  needy  children  in  institu- 
tions or  placing  them  in  foster  homes,  investigating  cases 
of  neglect,  abuse  or  cruelty,  supervising  delinquents  who 
are  placed  on  probation  or  parole,  untangling  family  diffi- 
culties, providing  financial  assistance,  securing  and  ex- 
plaining necessary  medical  care,  finding  jobs,  inspecting 
houses  and  factories,  directing  leisure  time  activities, 
teaching  and  advising  immigrants,  promoting  public  in- 
terest in  health,  thrift  and  law  enforcement — these  are  a 
few  of  the  tasks  that  are  performed  by  people  known  as 
social  workers. 

What  puzzles  the  inquirer  most  is  the  fact  that  even 
social  workers  seem  to  be  in  confusion  as  to  where  their 
work  ends  and  that  of  other  vocations  begins.  Some- 
times it  appears  as  though  every  public-spirited  citizen 
would  have  to  be  called  a  social  worker.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  some  phases  of  social  work  are  very  much  like  those 
simple  acts  of  neighborliness  whereby  people  living  near 
together  help  one  another  in  time  of  need.  Again,  it  is  as- 
sociated with  the  giving  of  casual  alms,  tossing  a  coin  to 
the  beggar  or  feeding  a  tramp  at  the  door.  Nearly  every- 
one does  these  things — whether  he  should  or  not — yet 
without  any  thought  of  calling  himself  a  social  worker. 

Not  only  has  social  work  been  relatively  undiffer- 

2  17 


i8  SOCIAL  WORK 

entiated  from  the  things  that  everybody  does;  it  overlaps 
the  fields  of  the  recognized  professions,  particularly  medi- 
cine, law,  teaching  and  the  ministry.  To  be  sure,  dis- 
tinctions can  be  drawn.  Thus,  while  medicine  has  to  do 
with  physical  conditions,  social  work  is  concerned  with 
relations  to  other  people.  As  contrasted  with  law,  it 
stands  for  the  adjustment  of  attitudes,  rather  than  those 
formal  relationships  prescribed  in  the  statute  books.  It 
differs  from  teaching  in  that  the  social  worker  rarely  has 
the  opportunity  to  conduct  his  "  client "  through  such 
formal  training  as  the  schools  provide.  It  is  usually  with- 
out the  theological  and  metaphysical  implications  of  re- 
ligious work.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  fact  that  social  work 
overlaps  all  of  these  other  professions. 

Perhaps  the  nearest  we  can  come  to  a  definition  is  to 
say  that  social  work  is  the  art  of  adjusting  personal  rela- 
tionships, of  helping  to  overcome  the  difficulties  which 
may  arise,  for  example,  between  native  and  foreign  born, 
between  employers  and  employes,  between  school  and 
home.  These  are  just  the  things  that  each  of  us  tries  to 
do  for  himself  and  that  we  frequently  try  to  do  for  our 
friends  and  neighbors.  Most  of  us  have  not  made  a  special 
study  of  such  problems,  of  their  causes  or  of  the  scientific 
basis  for  their  solution.  There  would  be  much  less  con- 
fusion if  the  term  social  worker  were  reserved  for  people 
who  have  made  such  special  studies  and  are  trained  in 
scientific  methods  of  dealing  with  difficult  problems  of 
human  relationships. 

To  many  people  social  work  is  merely  another  name 
for  charity,  that  is,  any  kind  of  service  rendered  or  goods 
provided  without  compensation.  If  this  is  correct,  then 
there  is  justification  for  the  assertion  that  social  work  is 
not  a  profession,  but  "  an  aspect  of  many  professions." 
Indeed,  there  has  been  no  little  debate  as  to  whether  or  no 


PROFESSIONALIZING  SOCIAL  WORK          19 

social  work  should  be  accorded  professional  rating.  Part 
of  the  difficulty  has  undoubtedly  come  from  the  loose  use 
of  terms,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  issue  will  be  clarified  if 
we  agree  that  certain  activities,  commonly  known  as 
charity,  evidently  do  not  constitute  the  work  of  a  single 
vocational  group;  and  that  many  of  these  activities  are 
not  at  all  professional  in  character,  but  are  apt  to  be  an 
incidental  part  of  anyone's  life.  There  are,  however, 
other  activities,  such,  for  example,  as  the  services  of  a 
probation  officer  or  vocational  counsellor,  which  are 
specialized  and  require  definite  training.  It  is  in  this  last 
group,  if  at  all,  that  a  profession  of  social  work  is  to 
be  found. 

Whether  or  not  our  first  question  can  be  satisfactorily 
answered,  it  will  be  profitable  for  us  to  consider  another, 
namely:  Is  social  work  passing  through  a  develop- 
mental stage  very  similar  to  that  experienced  earlier  by  the 
recognized  professions,  and  is  it  on  the  way  to  becoming  a 
profession?  The  hypothesis  which  we  shall  examine  is  an 
affirmative  answer  to  this  question. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PROFESSIONAL  TRAINING 

In  order  to  have  a  perspective  from  which  to  view 
the  process  now  going  on  in  the  field  of  social  work,  it  will 
be  well  for  us  to  review  briefly  the  series  of  events 
through  which  some  other  professions  have  attained  their 
present  status. 

A  hundred  years  ago  the  teaching  of  medical  students 
was  carried  on  by  physicians  who  took  apprentices.  These 
students  went  about  with  the  older  men,  watched  them 
treat  their  patients  and  helped  to  dispense  medicines.  After 
a  time  there  began  to  grow  up  a  number  of  private  medical 
schools,  operated  frequently  as  commercial  enterprises,  but 
possessing  many  advantages  over  the  apprenticeship  sys- 


to  SOCIAL  WORK 

tern.  They  offered  fairly  definite  courses  of  study,  and 
required  more  or  less  laboratory  work  and  observation  in 
clinics  before  beginning  to  practise.  Later  some  of  the 
universities  established  medical  schools,  and  most  of  the 
private  schools  either  became  affiliated  with  universities  or 
went  out  of  existence.  This  meant  the  more  careful 
organization  of  curricula  and  the  raising  of  standards  for 
admission.  At  the  present  time  the  usual  preparation  of 
a  physician  includes  a  high  school  education  emphasizing 
the  physical  sciences,  two  years  of  what  is  usually  called 
pre-medical  work  in  a  college  or  university  with  a  large 
share  of  the  time  spent  in  laboratories,  four  years  of  pro- 
fessional study  with  further  laboratory  work  and  observa- 
tion in  clinics,  and  finally  a  year  of  supervised  practise  as 
interne  in  some  hospital. 

The  developments  in  engineering,  law  and  the  ministry 
have  been  similar.  Only  recently  has  the  apprenticeship 
system  in  engineering  given  way  to  university  pro- 
fessional schools  resting  on  a  foundation  of  general  edu- 
cation and  specific  scientific  training.  It  is  still  possible  to 
become  a  lawyer  by  "  reading  "  in  some  attorney's  office, 
but  the  best  law  schools  now  require  at  least  three  years  of 
college  work,  emphasizing  history,  political  science  and 
economics,  before  a  student  is  admitted  to  the  professional 
courses.  Many  a  man  has  left  the  furrow  for  the  ministry 
with  no  other  preparation  than  the  "  call  to  preach,"  but 
today  the  professional  training  of  a  clergyman  includes 
a  full  college  course  followed  by  two  or  three  years  in  a 
theological  seminary  which  is  frequently  one  of  the  gradu- 
ate departments  of  a  university. 

With  these  developments  in  mind,  let  us  see  what  has 
been  happening  in  the  field  of  social  work.  For  centuries 
the  care  of  the  needy  was  almost  exclusively  a  function  of 
,the  church,  performed  for  the  most  part  by  persons  who 


PROFESSIONALIZING  SOCIAL  WORK         21 

had  other  duties  and  who  lacked  specific  training  for  this 
work.  With  the  rise  of  public  relief  systems  charity 
"  got  into  politics  "  and  was  again  attended  to  by  people 
with  other  duties  and  lacking  in  specific  training  for  social 
work.  The  nineteenth  century  movements  which  we  asso- 
ciate with  charity  organization,  social  settlements,  hous- 
ing reform  and  industrial  welfare  work,  were  largely 
pioneering  and  offered  at  first  little  on  which  professional 
training  could  be  based. 

Happily,  however,  these  agencies  did  make  use  of  the 
facilities  which  were  at  their  disposal  and  developed  an 
informal  sort  of  apprenticeship.  On  the  whole,  it  was  net 
wisely  planned  and  succeeded  primarily  in  passing  on  a 
few  "  tricks  of  the  trade."  [But  more  recently  social 
agencies  have  arranged  to  employ  "  workers-in-training  " 
who  receive  their  instruction  through  supervised  practise, 
assigned  reading  and  conferences  with  superiors.  This 
is  probably  the  apprentice  system  at  its  bestTJ  The  begin- 
ners letirn  a  definite  technique  and  are  prepared  for  the 
tasks  of  some  particular  organization  or  type  of  work. 
However,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  they  do  not  get  a  well- 
rounded  view  of  the  field  of  social  work ;  they  do  not  see 
it  in  its  relation  to  the  community  life  as  a  whole;  they 
are  not  prepared  to  apply  functional  tests  to  their  work  and 
adapt  it  to  new  social  needs. 

The  first  appearance  of  something  more  systematic 
was  the  six  weeks'  course  arranged  by  the  New  York 
Charity  Organization  Society  in  the  summer  of  1898. 
Twenty-seven  students  were  brought  together  for  lectures, 
visits  to  institutions  and  conferences.  In  1904  a  full  year's 
course  was  undertaken,  being  called  the  New  York  School 
of  Philanthropy,  and  operated  under  the  direction  of  the 
Committee  on  Philanthropic  Education  of  the  Charity 
Organization  Society.  Later  a  second  year  was  added, 


22  SOCIAL  WORK 

the  scope  of  training  was  widened  and  the  name  was 
changed  to  the  New  York  School  of  Social  Work. 

In  the  same  year  a  similar  school  was  established  in 
Boston  under  the  title  "  School  for  Social  Workers, 
maintained  by  Simmons  College  and  Harvard  University." 
Harvard  has  since  withdrawn  from  participation  in  its 
support  and  the  School  of  Social  Work,  as  it  is  now  called, 
is  operated  as  a  department  of  Simmons  College.  Pro- 
grammes are  offered  leading  to  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Science  and  for  college  graduates  to  the  degree  of  Master 
of  Science,  and  to  certificates  for  persons  with  irregu- 
lar education. 

In  1903  there  was  organized  the  Institute  of  Social 
Science,  planned  as  a  part  of  the  Extension  Division  of  the 
University  of  Chicago.  Presently  this  affiliation  was 
changed  for  one  with  the  settlement  known  as  Chicago 
Commons,  and  later  the  work  was  maintained  indepen- 
dently as  the  Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy. 
In  1920  this  institution  went  out  of  existence  and  its  activ- 
ities were  taken  over  again  by  the  University  of  Chicago 
to  be  carried  on  as  a  graduate  school  of  social  ser- 
vice administration. 

There  are  a  number  of  other  schools  with  similar  his- 
tories. But  a  somewhat  different  development  has  ap- 
peared within  certain  universities,  usually  in  close  relation 
to  their  departments  of  sociology.  Until  recently  this 
work  was  largely,  if  not  strictly,  academic  in  character, 
while  that  of  the  so-called  "  independent  "  schools  was 
quite  the  opposite.  But  during  the  past  few  years  there 
have  appeared  university  courses  thoroughly  "  practical  " 
in  character  and  correlated  with  field  work  in  various  social 
agencies.  Among  the  universities  and  colleges  which  have 
thus  provided  definite  training  for  social  work  are :  West- 


PROFESSIONALIZING  SOCIAL  WORK          23 

ern  Reserve,  Minnesota,  North  Carolina,  Ohio  State, 
Toronto,  Carnegie  Institute,  Bryn  Mawr  and  Smith, 

During  the  recent  war  interest  in  training  for  social 
work  was  further  stimulated  by  the  Red  Cross  Home 
Service  Institutes.  These  consisted  of  short  courses, 
sometimes  offered  in  cooperation  with  universities,  but 
more  often  independently,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  such 
preparation  as  could  be  condensed  into  six  or  twelve  weeks. 
While  these  were  necessitated  by  the  war  emergency,  the 
net  result  still  remains  in  doubt,  for  they  awarded  certifi- 
cates to  a  large  number  of  women  who  imagine  them- 
selves to  be  professional  folk,  and  who  have  been  described, 
perhaps  with  unnecessary  harshness,  as  "  half-baked  social 
reformers."  Similar  short  courses  were  arranged  by  the 
War  Camp  Community  Service  and  the  National  Catholic 
War  Council.  The  latter  has  now  concentrated  upon 
Clifton,  a  training  school  affiliated  with  the  Catholic 
University  of  America. 

Because  of  the  newness  of  all  this  and  because  of  the 
varied  conditions  under  which  training  schools  have  been 
started,  it  is  but  natural  that  we  should  find  no  general 
agreement  as  to  what  should  be  required  for  admission 
and  what  is  the  proper  content  of  a  professional  curricu- 
lum. One  of  the  older  schools  sets  forth  the  following 
alternative  conditions  of  admission :  ( I )  completion  of  a 
college  course,  (2)  graduation  from  a  recognized  second- 
ary school,  (3)  definite  social  service  experience.  That 
these  three  conditions  should  be  regarded  as  in  any  sense 
equivalents  is  one  reason  why  the  schools  of  social  work 
are  viewed  askance  by  many  intelligent  people. 

There  is  somewhat  more  definite  understanding  as  to 
the  courses  of  study.  However,  the  "  independent " 
schools  stress  the  techniques  of  particular  tasks,  while  the 
university  schools  lay  more  emphasis  upon  "  theory."  In 


24  SOCIAL  WORK 

general,  they  all  include  some  training  in  family  "case 
work/'  neighborhood  and  community  work  and  social  re- 
search. Several  of  the  schools  have  worked  out  courses  in 
medical-social  service,  work  with  delinquents  and  the  care 
of  children.  Somewhat  newer  and  less  developed  is  the 
training  of  people  for  service  in  small  towns  and  rural  sec- 
tions. All  the  schools  set  aside  a  certain  portion  of  the 
time  for  supervised  field  work,  but  for  the  most  part 
there  is  no  attempt  to  distinguish  what  might  be  called 
laboratory  work  and  clinic  observation  on  the  one  hand 
from  practise  on  the  other.  Students  are  usually  plunged 
immediately  into  the  mazes  of  diagnosis  and  treatment, 
which  in  the  medical  schools  are  withheld  until  the  very 
end  of  the  training  period.  All  of  this  presents  a  striking 
parallel  to  the  earlier  history  of  professional  education  in 
other  fields. 

FACTORS  AFFECTING  THE  STATUS  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 

So  far  the  evidence  seems  to  bear  out  our  hypothesis 
that  social  work  is  not  yet  a  profession,  but  is  in  the  process 
of  becoming  one.  The  correctness  of  this  judgment  may 
be  further  determined  by  the  adequacy  of  the  reasons 
which  may  be  found  for  the  failure  of  social  work  to 
achieve  professional  standing  in  the  past  and  for  the 
probability  of  such  achievement  in  the  future. 

First,  then,  what  are  the  factors  which  have  hindered 
social  work  hitherto  from  becoming  a  profession?  We 
have  already  noted  three :  ( I )  Social  work  has  represented 
activities  not  sufficiently  differentiated  from  those  of  the 
general  public.  (2)  It  overlaps  the  fields  of  the  recognized 
professions,  notably  medicine,  law,  teaching  and  the  min- 
istry. (3)  It  includes  a  wide  variety  of  services,  from 
house-work  in  an  orphanage  to  administering  a  federal 


PROFESSIONALIZING  SOCIAL  WORK          25 

bureau,  from  giving  information  to  travelers  to  super- 
vising paroled  prisoners. 

j^One  of  the  traits  that  distinguish  a  profession  from 
other  vocations  is  usually  held  to  be  that  the  former  is 
preeminently  an  intellectual  pursuit  with  large  oppor- 
tunity for  exercising  individual  initiative?/  Now  these 
qualities  have  always  been  found  in  some  social  work,  but 
it  is  easy  to  point  out  many  persons  calling  themselves 
social  workers  who  are  engaged  in  applying  "cut  and  dried" 
techniques  rather  than  exercising  initiative.  The  work 
of  many  a  relief  agent,  probation  officer,  institution  at- 
tendant and  employment  manager  is,  after  all,  pretty  much 
a  matter  of  mechanical  routine.  This  is  not  because  it 
lacks  the  possibilities  of  original  work,  but  rather  because 
of  the  limited  vision  and  inadequate  training  of  those  who 
do  it.  This  inadequate  training  is  responsible  for  methods 
which  are  the  product  of  a  crude  trial  and  error  process. 
Samples  of  the  "  rules  of  thumb  "  which  have  stood  in  the 
place  of  scientific  methods  are  the  historic  "  workhouse 
test,"  and  habitual  reliance  upon  material  relief,  institu- 
tional care,  Binet  tests,  etc. 

[Perhaps  the  most  important  reason  why  social  work 
has  not  yet  become  a  profession  is  the  persistence  of  the 
apprenticeship  system  already  described^  The  result  is 
that  many  social  workers  are  ignorant  of  the  relations  be- 
tween different  types  of  work  and  still  more  ignorant  of 
the  relation  of  social  work  in  general  to  the  community 
life  as  a  whole.  The  apprenticeship  system  involves  almost 
automatically  the  dominance  of  "  rules  of  thumb "  and 
"  tricks  of  the  trade  "  over  scientific  principles.  It  pro- 
duces social  workers  whose  self-importance  ill  comports 
with  their  narrow  vision  and  limited  ability. 

But  the  persistence   of  the  apprenticeship  system  is  in 
turn  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  the  late  development  of  social 


26  SOCIAL  WORK 

science.  While  political  science  made  its  appearance  long 
before  the  nineteenth  century,  the  development  of  eco- 
nomics is  recent,  and  sociology  belongs  almost  wholly  to 
the  last  few  decades.  Even  yet  social  science  is  in  a  forma- 
tive stage.  But  on  the  other  hand,  the  social  workers 
have  not  always  been  ready  to  avail  themselves  of  the  con- 
tributions which  the  social  scientists  might  have  made  to 
theirjx>licies  and  methods. 

Finally,  among  the  causes  of  failure  to  attain  profes- 
sional standing,  we  must  note  the  undemocratic  character 
of  social  work  as  implied  in  the  word  charity.  The  physi- 
cian, lawyer,  minister  and  teacher  are  supported  by  their 
clients  or  by  the  community  as  a  whole,  while  the  social 
worker  has  usually  been  the  emissary  of  one  social  class 
to  another.  The  recognized  professional  folk  deal  with 
problems  which  may  appear  in  any  social  or  economic 
group,  while  the  social  workers  have  restricted  themselves 
largely  to  the  so-called  "  working-classes."  The  profes- 
sional folk  are  engaged  in  doing  things  which  people  need 
to  have  done  and  which  in  this  era  of  specialization  they 
are  not  able  to  do  for  themselves.  There  is  no  assumption 
of  social  or  economic  superiority.  There  is  simply  a  task 
to  be  performed  which  requires  a  special  kind  of  ability 
and  training.  The  social  worker,  on  the  other  hand,  has 
not  yet  escaped  the  stigma  of  doing  things  that  "normal" 
people  ought  to  do  for  themselves.  He  is  looked  upon  as 
handing  down  to  the  inferior  classes  some  of  the  surplus 
of  the  superior. 

Now  it  is  a  revulsion  against  just  this  sort  of  thing 
that  is  providing  one  of  the  most  powerful  impulses  for 
the  professionalizing  of  social  work.  Charity  has  some- 
times been  presented  as  a  device  for  quieting  unrest  and 
avoiding  important  social  or  economic  readjustments. 
But  the  scorn  of  the  socialist,  the  trade-unionist  and  often 


PROFESSIONALIZING  SOCIAL  WORK         27 

the  moderate  liberal  for  charity  is  being  felt.  The  most 
obvious  response  is  the  changing  of  names.  Charity  or- 
ganization societies  are  becoming  family  welfare  associa- 
tions; boards  of  charity  are  becoming  boards  of  public 
welfare;  conferences  of  charities  are  becoming  confer- 
ences of  social  agencies;  schools  of  philanthropy  are  be- 
coming schools  of  social  work.  There  is  a  marked  effort 
to  shake  off  the  past  and  make  a  new  start,  not  only  in 
name,  but  in  character  and  scope  of  work  as  well.  Addi- 
tional impetus  is  given  to  this  transition  by  the  gradually 
increasing  use  of  social  agencies  by  the  well-to-do,  some- 
times with  the  payment  of  a  fee  for  the  service,  and 
by  the  extension  of  governmental  participation  in  social 
work.  Just  as  there  need  be  no  humiliation  in  consulta- 
tion with  a  physician,  attorney,  architect  or  engineer,  so  it 
may  be  that  the  social  worker  will  presently  be  looked  to  by 
all  of  us  for  the  rendering  of  certain  specialized  services. 
The  demand  for  the  professionalizing  of  social  work 
is  bound  up  with  the  democratic  movement.  But  it  is  the 
rise  of  social  science  that  is  making  possible  the  equip- 
ment of  workers  able  to  render  the  technical  services  re- 
quired. Already  social  science,  particularly  sociology, 
has  established  the  fact  of  the  relativity  of  moral  codes 
and  the  general  manner  in  which  social  institutions  grow 
and  decay.  It  has  demonstrated  the  intimate  relations  of 
government,  industry,  religion,  family — in  other  words, 
the  unity  of  the  social  process.  It  has  shown  the  import- 
ance and  some  methods  of  applying  functional  tests  to 
social  agencies.  It  has  made  clear  the  possibility  of  con- 
trolling many  of  the  conditions  of  our  common  life. 
True,  much  that  passes  as  social  science  is  unscientific 
both  in  spirit  and  method,  but  in  spite  of  this  there  are 
growing  up  techniques,  funds  of  information  and  gen- 


28  SOCIAL  WORK 

eral  principles  quite  as  worthy  of  confidence  as  many  of 
those  of  physical  science. 

With  the  development  of  social  science,  it  is  becoming 
more  and  more  possible  to  build  up  schools  for  the  train- 
ing of  social  workers  on  a  basis  that  may  properly  be 
called  professional.  The  "institutes",  the  "independent" 
schools  and  the  university  departments  all  are  making 
increasing  iise  of  the  results  of  scientific  research  in  the 
realm  of  social  problems.  More  and  more  a  knowledge 
of  these  results  and  a  specialized  training  based  on  them 
are  being  demanded  of  candidates  for  positions  in  social 
work. 

Further  evidences  of  the  evolution  of  a  profession  are 
to  be  seen  in  the  esprit  de  corps  cultivated  by  conferences, 
federations  and  publications.  They  appear  in  the  efforts 
to  establish  common  standards  and  to  outline  "profes- 
sional ethics".  Finally,  we  are  defining  more  clearly  the 
tasks  which  we  expect  social  workers  to  perform.  In 
general,  these  tasks  involve  the  adjustment  of  personal 
relations.  Specifically,  they  include  the  securing  of  in- 
formation which  makes  possible  programs  for  the  meet- 
ing of  emergencies,  the  correction  of  dangerous  habits 
and  protection  of  incompetents.  Very  often  they  consist  in 
making  plans  and  giving  advice  concerning  family  rela- 
tions, education,  employment  and  community  organi- 
zation. They  usually  involve  the  clearing  up  of  mis- 
understandings, the  relieving  of  worries  and  removing 
the  sources  of  personal  friction. 

But  what  of  the  rapid  "  socialization  "of  the  other 
professions?  The  question  has  been  asked,  if  the  com- 
munity is  served  to  the  utmost  by  the  teachers,  doctors, 
lawyers,  ministers,  etc.,  what  will  remain  for  the  social 
workers?  It  is  probably  true  that  many  of  the  services 
now  performed  by  social  workers  will  be  gradually  turned 


PROFESSIONALIZING  SOCIAL  WORK          29 

over  to  members  of  other  professions,  and  that  others 
will  be  eliminated  as  unnecessary.  But  it  seems  quite 
certain  that  there  will  be  a  residium  centering  about  the 
service  to  persons  seriously  out  of  adjustment  with  their 
surroundings  and  to  groups  badly  disorganized.  Wheth- 
er the  term  social  work  be  attached  to  the  civic  respon- 
sibilities of  everyone  or  to  the  specialized  services  just 
indicated  matters  little.  The  probabilities  are  that  the  lat- 
ter will  become  the  function  of  a  definite  professional 
group ;  while  the  former,  under  a  different  name,  or  per- 
haps bearing  no  specific  label,  will  be  frankly  unprofes- 
sional. The  signs  point  to  a  minimizing  in  the  twentieth 
century  of  charity,  philanthropy,  uplift,  etc.,  with  the 
development  on  the  one  hand  of  professional  service,  and 
on  the  other  the  expansion  of  civic  responsibilities  of  the 
common  man. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 
Is  Social  Work  a  Profession? 

The  Profession  of  Social  Work.    Published  by  the  National  Social 

Workers'  Exchange.     New  York,  1921. 

Nat  Conf.  Social  Work,  1917,  112-115,  37O-37I;  1915,  575-^06. 
Survey,  35,  386-389,  408-410;  40,  125-126. 

Science  and  Social  Work 

Todd,  Arthur  J. :  The  Scientific  Spirit  and  Social  Work.  New 
York:  Macmillan,  1919. 

Queen,  Stuart  A,:  Social  Science  in  the  Colleges.  Baltimore: 
Gouchcr  College  Bulletin,  1920. 

Nat  Conf.  Social  Work,  1919,  358-365  (sociology)  ;  1918,  329-340 
(psychology),  683-693  (sociology)  ;  1917,  101-112  (medicine  and 
psychology)  ;  1916,  495-501  (medicine)  ;  1915,  307-339  (abnor- 
mal psychology  and  psychiatry). 

Amer.  Jour.  Soc.t  18,  215-221  (social  technology) ;  21,  721-864 
(sociology). 


30  SOCIAL  WORK 

Training  for  Social  Work 

Stciner,  Jesse  F. :  Training  for  Social  Work.  Chicago:  University 
of  Chicago  Press,  1921.  Also  Amcr.  Jour.  Soc.,  Jan.,  Mar.  and 
May,  1921. 

Brackett,  Jeffrey  R. :  Supervision  and  Education  in  Charity.  New 
York:  Macmillan,  1903,  Chap.  7  and  8. 

U.  S.  Bur.  Educ.,  1915,  345~359- 

Nat.  Conf.  Social  Work,  1919,  593-611 ;  1915,  606-626. 

Nat  Conf.  Char,  and  Char.,  1913,  376-379;  1911,  365-400. 

School  and  Society,  7,  271-277. 

London  Char.  Org.  Soc.  Occasional  Papers,  1900,  No.  u,  pp.  129-138; 
1905,  No.  3,  PP.  39-45- 

See  bulletins  and  catalogs  of  various  schools  of  social  work,  e.g., 
New  York  School  of  Social  Work,  Simmons  College  School  of 
Social  Work,  University  of  Chicago  School  of  Social  Service 
Administration,  Missouri  School  of  Social  Economy,  Smith  Col- 
lege Training  School  for  Social  Work. 


CHAPTER  II 
CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES 

OF  tremendous  significance  for  its  future  are  the 
various  movements  which  aim  at  bringing  together  the 
host  of  individuals  and  organizations  engaged  in  social 
work.  Much  is  being  said  and  done  today  concerning 
federation,  unification,  standardization  and  other  phases 
of  correlation.  As  other  aspects  of  this  same  tendency 
we  may  regard  governmental  participation  and  supervi- 
sion and  a  challenging  of  social  work  by  the  public  in 
general.  In  it  all,  there  is  a  diminution  of  the  promi- 
nence frequently  given  to  particular  organizations  and 
individual  workers,  with  an  increasing  emphasis  upon 
the  community  as  a  whole  and  its  needs. 

The  correlation  of  social  agencies  is  by  no  means  a 
new  thing.  Indeed,  the  philanthropies  of  the  middle  ages 
were  correlated  to  a  certain  extent,  because  practically  all 
of  them  were  administered  by  the  great  ecclesiastical  sys- 
tem which  had  its  center  at  Rome.  Nevertheless,  in  its 
practical  working  out,  the  relief  work  of  each  monastery, 
hospital  and  parish  was  relatively  independent.  When 
we  come  down  to  the  modern  period,  we  find  the  English 
system  of  poor  relief  organized  on  a  local  basis  and  the 
American  scheme  of  public  charities  followed  closely  the 
English  plan.  When  we  get  into  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  number  of  private  organizations  without  official  rela- 
tions to  one  another  becomes  enormous.  Even  at  the 
present  day  many  serious  workers  are  disturbed  at  the 
multitude  of  agencies  operating  along  similar  lines. 

As  evidence  of  the  need  for  correlation,  two  or  three 

31 


32  SOCIAL  WORK 

instances  may  be  cited.  When  Dr.  Richard  A.  Bolt  be- 
came National  Director  of  the  American  Child  Hygiene 
Association,  he  sent  out  letters  to  all  national  organi- 
zations which  he  had  reason  to  believe  were  working 
in  the  field  of  child  hygiene.  The  replies  to  his  inquiries 
revealed  the  fact  that  there  are  today  some  eighty  differ- 
ent national  societies  at  work  in  this  field.  Another 
instance  appears  in  the  public  school  system  of  the  state 
of  Virginia.  Here  there  are  at  least  seven  separate 
groups  undertaking  to  organize  the  school  children  for 
various  civic  purposes.  First,  there  is  the  Cooperative 
Educational  Association,  organizing  its  Junior  Com- 
munity Leagues.  Then  comes  the  National  Tuberculosis 
Association,  with  its  Modern  Health  Crusaders.  The 
American  Red  Cross  appears  with  a  program  no  less  am- 
bitious for  its  Junior  membership.  The  Extension  De- 
partment of  Virginia  Polytechnic  Institute  is  organizing 
boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  especially  in  the  rural  districts. 
The  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  is  promoting  a  thrift 
campaign.  And  finally,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation and  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association 
are  planning  to  extend  the  work  of  their  boys'  and  girls' 
departments. 

There  are  many  different  types  of  correlation  and 
integration  of  social  agencies,  to  five  outstanding  forms 
of  which  we  shall  give  our  attention.  They  are,  respec- 
tively, correlation  through  state  and  national  societies, 
through  supervision,  councils  of  social  agencies,  financial 
federations  and  actual  amalgamation. 

NATIONAL    AND    STATE   ORGANIZATIONS 

The  national  and  state  societies  are  of  three  general 
types — those  whose  chief  function  is  the~ho1ding  of  an 
annual  conference,  those  that  are  actually  carrying  on 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES        33 
a  definite  program  of  social  work,  and  those  that  are 

4p^MtiMMq^^^^^«M^MMHpNMBMitoVHfl"'llB^M^^BMH^^^^^^^^^B 

primarily  religious. 

Of  the  .najt^aJ^confereTices,  the  best  known  is  the 
National  Conference  of  Social  work,  which  was  organized  , 
in  the  early  seventies  as  the  National  Conference  of  Char-  / 
ities  and  Correction.  The  purpose  of  this  society  was  to 
bring  together  those  engaged  in  the  administration  of 
various  philanthropic  and  correctional  agencies,  and  other 
public-spirited  citizens  interested  in  improved  facilities 
for  the  care  of  dependents,  defectives  and  delinquents. 
For  a  long  time,  the  attention  of  the  Conference  centered 
largely  upon  problems  of  providing  for  the  "disadvan- 
taged  classes".  But  even  at  the  beginning,  there  were 
some  who  saw  the  inadequacy  of  mere  palliative  measures, 
and  as  the  years  went  by  there  was  more  and  more  em- 
phasis upon  preventive  and  constructive  work.  This 
broadening  interest  finally  received  recognition  in  the 
change  of  name  in  1916.  The  present  scope  of  the  Con- 
ference may  be  suggested  by  enumerating  the  committees 
which  prepared  the  program  of  the  1920  meeting.  There 
were  committees  on  children,  delinquents  and  correction, 
health,  public  agencies  and  institutions,  the  family,  indus- 
trial and  economic  problems,  the  local  community,  men- 
tal hygiene,  organization  of  social  forces  and  the  uniting 
of  native  and  foreign-born  in  America. 

Another  national  organization  of  historical  interest, 
which  also  dates  from  the  seventies,  is  the  American 
Prison  Association.  This  is,  as  its  name  signifies,  much 
more  specialized  than  the  National  Conference  of  Social 
work,  but  it  too  nas  gone  through  a  transition  from  atten- 
tion primarily  to  details  of  administration  and  treatment 
to  a  consideration  of  means  of  preventing  delinquency. 

Time  and  space  forbid  that  we  do  more  than  enumer- 
ate a  few  of  the  many  other  national  organizations  which 
3 


34  SOCIAL  WORK 

hold  annual  conferences  and  which  bring  together  social 
workers  for  a  better  understanding  and  closer  coordi- 
nation of  effort.  Just  as  samples,  we  mention  the  Ameri- 
can Association  for  Organizing  Family  Social  Work, 
the  National  Federation  of  Settlements,  the  National 
Children's  Home  Society,  National  Conference  on  the 
Education  of  Backward,  Truant  and  Delinquent  Children, 
National  Probation  Association,  National  Organization 
for  Public  Health  Nursing,  American  Association  of  Hos- 
pital Social  Workers,  Playground  and  Recreation  Asso- 
ciation of  America,  Association  of  Training  Schools  for 
Professional  Social  Work. 

Many  of  these  national  organizations  are  also  organ- 
ized on  a  state-wide  basis,  the  state  societies  frequently 
being  branches  of  the  national  associations.  Among  the 
earliest  of  these  state  organizations  to  develop  were  the 
State  Conferences  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  now  for 
the  most  part  known  by  names  similar  to  the  new  title 
of  the  National  Conference.  These  State  Conferences 
were  stimulated  by  the  national  organization,  but  until 
recently  have  had  no  official  relation  to  it,  and  even  now, 
the  majority  of  them  are  quite  independent. 

So  far,  we  have  discussed  organizations  whose  prin- 
cipal function,  or  at  least,  whose  original  purpose  was 
the  holding  of  an  annual  meeting.  Many  of  them,  of 
course,  carry  on  publicity  or  research  work  throughout  the 
year.  However,  they  differ  fundamentally  from  another 
group  of  nation-  and  state-wide  agencies,  which  are  ad- 
ministering more  or  less  definite  programs.  Among  these 
are  the  American  Red  Cross,  Community  Service,  Inc., 
the  National  Desertion  Bureau,  American  Association  for 
Labor  Legislation  and  some  of  the  public  health  agencies 
discussed  in  another  chapter. 

The   Red   Cross   was  started  originally   for  purely 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES        35 

military  relief,  and  the  supplementing  of  medical  service 
in  the  army.  Later,  it  added  as  a  peace  time  activity  the 
administration  of  relief  in  times  of  disaster,  such  as  fire, 
flood  and  earth-quake.  During  the  great  War,  it  assumed 
responsibilty  for  looking  after  the  families  of  men  who 
entered  upon  military  or  naval  service.  In  addition,  it 
undertook  to  adjust  many  matters  for  the  enlisted  men 
themselves. 

Chapters  of  the  Red  Cross  were  organized  in  every 
city  and  in  almost  every  county  of  the  United  States. 
Each  chapter  had  committees  to  handle  various  aspects  of 
its  work.  Some  of  these  have  completed  their  task,  but 
in  many  communities  Home  Service  is  being  continued, 
not  merely  to  adjust  various  matters  for  disabled  and  dis- 
charged soldiers  but  also  to  carry  on  peace  time  activities. 
Especially  in  the  South  and  West,  where  there  are  few 
organized  social  agencies,  does  it  seem  likely  that  Home 
Service  will  continue  and  expand  its  activities.  Another 
phase  of  Red  Cross  work  that  is  spreading  is  its  health 
service.  Many  chapters  are  employing  public  health 
nurses  and  some  are  organizing  health  centers. 

Being  organized  on  a  nation-wide  scale,  it  has  been 
necessary  for  the  Red  Cross  to  develop  and  maintain  a 
somewhat  elaborate  administrative  machine.  At  the  top 
is  National  Headquarters  which  maps  out  general  poli- 
cies and  helps  the  divisions  to  put  them  into  effect. 
These  divisions  comprise  groups  of  contiguous  states. 
There  were  until  recently  fourteen  divisions  with  field 
staffs  which  visit  the  local  chapters  to  assist  and  stimulate 
them  in  a  variety  of  ways.  Each  chapter  usually  covers 
a  county  or  city  and  is  further  subdivided  into  branches 
and  auxiliaries. 

We  shall  not  take  the  time  to  describe  others  of  the 
national  organizations,  but  instead  will  outline  the  work- 


36  SOCIAL  WORK 

ing  agreement  entered  into  by  the  American  Red  Cross, 
the  National  Tuberculosis  Association,  and  the  National 
Organization  for  Public  Health  Nursing  early  in  1920. 
The  cooperative  plan  covers  education,  recruiting  and 
employment  of  public  health  nurses,  assigning  to  each 
organization  certain  specific  functions,  and  providing 
definite  machinery  for  coordination.  This  last  consists 
of  a  joint  consultation  committee  made  up  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  National  Organization  for  Public  Health 
Nursing,  the  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Public  Health 
Nursing  of  the  Red  Cross,  and  Secretary  for  Nursing  of 
the  National  Tuberculosis  Association.  This  committee 
meets  frequently  for  conferences  relative  to  problems  and 
projects  confronting  or  contemplated  by  any  one  of  the 
three.  In  addition,  there  are  state  committees  on  Public 
Health  Nursing,  which  usually  represent  these  three  or- 
ganizations and  the  State  Departments  of  Health.  These 
committees,  without  assuming  administrative  responsi- 
bility, devote  themselves  to  the  advancement  of  public 
health  nursing  through  the  stimulation  of  public  opinion, 
through  interpretation  and  advice,  and  through  the  pro- 
motion of  coordination.  Finally,  there  are  exchanges  of 
memoranda  regarding  new  programs  or  changes  in  poli- 
cies before  these  are  put  into  operation. 

CORRELATION  THROUGH  SUPERVISION 

A  very  different  sort  of  correlation  has  come  about 
through  the  supervision  of  social  agencies  by  various  pub- 
lic and  private  bodies.  Largely  under  the  influence  of  the 
National  and  State  Conferences  of  Charities  and  Correc- 
tion, many  states  have  established  departments  bearing  such 
names  as  Board  of  Charities  and  Correction,  Board  of 
Control,  Commissioners  of  Public  Welfare  or  Board  of 
Administration.  In  the  main,  their  duties  are  super- 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES        37 

visory  and  their  powers  are  limited  to  inspection  and 
recommendation.  Some  of  them,  however,  have  been 
given  very  large  administrative  powers,  especially  over 
state  institutions  for  the  insane,  feeble-minded,  epileptic 
and  delinquent.  A  very  few  have  limited  administrative 
authority  over  county  jails,  alms-houses  and  hospitals, 
and  over  municipal  institutions  of  a  similar  nature. 

More  recently,  the  State  Boards  have  been  given 
responsibility  for  the  care  of  dependent  children.  Fre- 
quently, they  are  authorized  to  license  and  regulate  or- 
phanages and  other  children's  homes,  child-placing  so- 
cieties and  maternity  hospitals.  Usually  the  State  Board 
has  a  certain  amount  of  police  power  to  enforce  its  re- 
quirements. But  ordinarily,  great  caution  has  been  exer- 
cised to  avoid  setting  arbitrary  standards  which  were  not 
understood  nor  desired,  at  least  by  the  better  private 
agencies.  In  some  states,  the  Boards  have  called  together 
representatives  of  the  various  organizations  affected  to 
talk  over  with  them  just  what  should  be  required  in  order 
that  their  work  might  justify  itself  before  the  public. 
By  this  cooperative  plan  of  arriving  at  standards,  the 
Boards  have  been  much  more  successful  in  improving 
the  character  of  institutions  and  societies  than  they  could 
possibly  have  been  had  their  methods  been  more  auto- 
cratic. Because  the  staff  of  the  average  State  Board  is 
utterly  inadequate  to  perform  the  task  assigned,  it  has 
sometimes  been  the  practice  to  delegate  part  of  the  work 
to  local  authorities  and  sometimes  to  private  agencies. 
Thus  the  California  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Correc- 
tions has  endeavored  to  bring  private  boarding  homes 
for  children  under  the  supervison  of  the  licensed  child- 
placing  societies.  In  cities  in  which  the  local  Health 
Departments  or  Charities  Commissions  are  regarded  as 
having  satisfactory  standards  and  the  means  for  enforcing 


38  SOCIAL  WORK 

them,  licenses  are  issued  by  the  State  Board  upon  recom- 
mendation of  the  local  authority. 

Another  phase  of  the  correlation  developed  by  the 
State  Departments  has  been  the  holding  of  frequent  con- 
ferences of  people  engaged  or  interested  in  the  care  of 
needy  children.  Usually  these  meetings  are  held  at  some 
institution,  or  the  office  of  some  other  agency,  in  order 
that  the  discussions  may  be  supplemented  by  personal  in- 
spection of  equipment  and  observation  of  methods. 

In  the  West  and  South,  a  number  of  cities  have  under- 
taken to  adapt  the  State  Board  of  Charities  plan  to  the 
municipality.  In  1913,  the  Los  Angeles  City  Council 
passed  an  ordinance  creating  a  Municipal  Charities  Com- 
mission, empowering  it  to: 

(1)  Investigate  all  charities  dependent  upon  public 
appeal,  or  general  solicitation  of  funds,  for  their  support, 

,  and  to  endorse  such  of  them  as  meet  the  actual  needs  of  the 
community,  and  attain  a  reasonable  standard  of  efficiency, 
and  are  so  conducted  as  to  insure  the  public  of  a  wise 
use  of  funds ; 

(2)  To  encourage  the  formation  of  new  private  chari- 
"V  ties  to  meet  the  needs  not  already  provided  for ; 

(3  )  To  collect  and  preserve  statistics  relating  to  chari- 
ties, conditions  of  life,  unemployment  and  delinquency; 
and  maintain  a  constant  survey  of  the  field  of  charity; 

(4)  To  disburse  all  funds  apportioned  by  the  city  for 
charitable  purposes; 

(5)  To  receive  donations,  gifts,  or  bequests,  to  be  used 
for  charitable  purposes,  and  administer  the  same ; 

(6)  To  establish  and  maintain  free  employment  bu- 
reaus, et  cetera. 

At  the  same  time,  the  City  Council  passed  a  Penal 
Ordinance  which  provided  for  the  regulation  of  the  solicit- 
ing of  alms  and  contributions  for  charitable  purposes, 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES        39 

and  prohibited  begging.  In  carrying  out  the  provisions  of 
these  acts,  the  Commisson  incurred  the  bitter  enmity  of 
the  Salvation  Army,  which  carried  its  case  finally  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  California.  The  decision  handed  down 
was  to  the  effect  that  certain  parts  of  the  ordinance 
were  unconstitutional,  because  in  them  the  City  Council 
had  undertaken  to  delegate  to  the  Commission  powers 
which  the  city  itself  did  not  possess. 

Because  of  personal  jealousy  and  animosity  rather 
than  because  of  this  decision,  both  of  the  ordinances  were 
repealed  and  new  ones  put  in  their  place,  establishing  a 
Social  Service  Commission  with  decidedly  limited  power. 
The  spirit  of  the  new  ordinances  is  indicated  by  certain 
phrases  which  appear  in  them.  Thus  the  Commission  is 
authorized  to  investigate  charitable  or  philanthropic  or- 
ganizations vyhen  req^gsted  or  permkted  bv  fre  officers  / 
thereof.  The  Commission  now  endorses  instead  otTi- 
censing  such  organizations,  and  is  thus  practically  on  a 
par  with  the  Charities  Endorsement  Committees  of  vari- 
ous Chambers  of  Commerce. 

In  a  number  of  cities  such  as  Cleveland,  Chicago,  St. 
Louis  and  San  Francisco,  the  Chambers  of  Commerce, 
Merchants  Associations,  or  similar  bodies  have  appointed 
Charities  Endorsement  Committees.  Their  purpose  has 
been  primarily  to  protect  their  members  from  the  appeals 
of  fraudulent  solicitors,  but  they  have  frequently  gone 
beyond  this  merely  negative  and  prohibitive  program. 
Following  the  lead  of  the  State  Boards,  they  have  some- 
times undertaken  to  bring  together  the  officers  of  various 
agencies  in  order  that  there  might  be  a  better  mutual  un- 
derstanding and  a  closer  coordination  of  effort.  Probably 
their  chief  value  has  been  the  collection  of  more  or  less 
comprehensive  information  about  the  social  agencies  of 
the  city. 


40  SOCIAL  WORK 

In  St.  Louis,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  Endorsement 
Committee  now  requires  membership  in  the  Council  of 
Social  Agencies  before  placing  its  stamp  of  approval  upon 
any  organization.  Any  group  of  people  desiring  to  se- 
cure general  support  for  a  new  social  activity,  or  the  exten- 
sion of  an  old  one,  will  almost  certainly  come  to  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce.  In  each  case,  the  Chamber  asks  for 
a  report  from  the  central  council.  A  special  committee 
of  the  council  is  then  appointed,  and  its  reports  are  pre- 
sented first  to  the  council  and  then  to  the  Charities  En- 
dorsement Committee. 

Similar  to  this  sort  of  supervision  is  the  work  of  the 
National  Investigation  Bureau.  This  grew  out  of  the 
many  inquiries  brought  to  the  Bureau  of  Advice  and  In- 
formation of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  of  New 
York,  concerning  various  war  charities.  The  committee 
requested  the  Council  of  National  Defense  to  assume  the 
responsibility  for  endorsing  war  charities,  but  nothing 
was  done  by  the  council,  and  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  itself  began  to  issue  bulletins  of  approved  war 
activities.  These  were  continued  until  October,  1918, 
when  eight  of  the  leading  "  war  chests  "  joined  in  organ- 
izing the  National  Investigation  Bureau.  The  movement 
spread  rapidly,  and  as  a  result  many  ill-considered  efforts 
were  eliminated,  or  kept  from  coming  into  existence. 

COUNCILS  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES 

We  turn  now  to  what  are  called  Councils  of  Social 
Agencies.  The  general  idea  of  the  central  council  seems 
to  have  grown  out  of  the  field  work  inaugurated  by  the 
Charity  Organization  Department  of  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  and  later  transferred  to  the  American  Asso- 
ciation for  Organizing  Family  Social  Work.  As  distin- 
guished from  a  City  Conference  on  Social  Work,  or  a 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES       41 

Social  Workers'  Club,  a  Central  Council  is  essentially 
a  body  composed  of  official  delegates  from  various  agen- 
cies. Some  of  the  councils  have  started  somewhat  after 
the  fashion  of  an  exclusive  club,  admitting  only  recog- 
nized and  approved  organizations,  while  others  undertook 
to  bring  in  as  many  as  possible  at  the  very  start.  In  gen- 
eral, however,  opportunist  policies  have  been  followed, 
and  a  variety  of  local  and  temporary  circumstances  have 
determined  what  groups  should  be  included.  Such  cen- 
tral councils  have  been  established  in  a  number  of  the 
larger  cities  and  are  now  being  introduced  into  smaller 
communities  Among  the  better  known  Councils  are 
those  of  St.  Louis,  Milwaukee,  Minneapolis,  Chicago, 
and  Cincinnati. 

The  methods  by  which  a  Central  Council  may  make 
contributions  to  the  social  life  of  a  community  are  thus  de- 
scribed by  Francis  H.  McLean. 

1 i )  By  bringing  about  the  improvement  of  methods, 
policies  and  ideals  in  the  work  of  individual  social  agencies. 

(2)  By  developing  a  better  inter-play  between  the 
work  of  different  agencies,  resulting  in  greater  economy 
and  efficiency  of  effort  on  the  part  of  all  of  them. 

(3)  By  demonstrating  to  their  respective  communi- 
ties the  need  for  the  establishment  of  new  social  agencies, 
either  public  or  private,  or  the  extension  of  the  work  of 
old  ones. 

(5)  By  developing  joint  action  for  the  advancement 
of  reforms  in  public  administrative  departments  or  for 
the  passage  of  new  social  legislation. 

(6)  By  developing  a  program  of  social  development 
which  may  look  many  years  into  the  future,  but  which 
will  make  clear  just  what  new  activities  in  the  social 
field  should  next  be  undertaken  by  the  community.    That 


42  SOCIAL  WORK 

is,  councils  should  always  have  formulated  plans  for  pro- 
gressive and  logical  development  in  the  social  field. 

(7)  By   holding  conferences  and  printing  material 
on  subjects  of  general  interest  to  the  social  agencies;  as, 
for  instance,  on  right  methods  of  publicity  for  different 
kinds  of  agency.    This  may  include  joint  schemes  for  edu- 
cating the  community  as  to  the  methods  and  ends  of  so- 
cial  work. 

(8)  By  inaugurating  and  carrying  on  joint  activities 
for  the  benefit  of  all  the  agencies.    Thus  the  central  coun- 
cils have  in  a  number  of  places  become  responsible  for  the 
social  service  exchange.   In  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  Min- 
neapolis they  have  established  bureaus  for  the  enrollment 
and  assignment  of  volunteer  service.    In  Chicago  and  Mil- 
waukee the  council  is  considering  the  question  of  joint  pur- 
chase of  supplies. 

There  are  other  sorts  of  community  councils  which 
include  agencies  not  ordinarily  regarded  as  belonging 
in  the  field  of  social  work.  Their  activities,  however, 
are  frequently  so  similar  in  character  that  it  is  worth  while 
to  call  attention  to  their  existence.  Such  organizations 
are  the  County  Councils,  promoted  by  the  State  Colleges 
of  Agriculture  and  the  Inter-Church  World  Movement. 
In  this  same  category  might  be  listed  the  Community 
Leagues  organized  by  the  Cooperative  Education  Asso- 
ciation of  Virginia. 

FINANCIAL  FEDERATIONS 

Similar  in  many  respects  to  the  Councils  of  Social 
Agencies  are  the  so-called  Financial  Federations.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  some  of  the  federations  have  exactly  the 
same  functions  as  the  central  councils,  with  the  added 
work  of  cooperative  budget  making  and  money  raising. 
In  exactly  the  same  manner  as  the  central  councils,  the 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES        43 

federations  undertake  to  standardize  salaries  and  methods 
of  work,  conduct  surveys  and  continuous  research,  carry 
on  educational  and  publicity  work,  and  bring  together 
members  of  constituent  agencies  for  frequent  conference. 

The  need  for  financial  federation  was  most  urgently 
felt  by  those  who  saw  trained  social  workers  compelled 
to  devote  an  exorbitant  part  of  their  time  to  money  rais- 
ing. They  saw  also  the  waste  and  friction  involved  in 
repeated  appeals,  frequently  to  precisely  the  same  people. 
Some  of  the  promoters  of  these  federations,  indeed,  were 
among  the  generous  givers  to  whom  a  multitude  of  agen- 
cies sent  a  continual  stream  of  requests  for  money. 

The  federation  idea  seems  to  have  started  in  Denver, 
back  in  the  eighties.  For  a  time  no  other  city  followed 
this  lead.  About  a  decade  later,  it  was  taken  up  by  the 
Jews  with  the  result  that  there  is  now  in  almost  every 
city  of  importance  a  Federation  of  Jewish  Charities.  Fi- 
nally, the  idea  reappeared  in  Cleveland  in  1913  on  a  com- 
munity basis. 

In  that  year,  the  Federation  for  Charity  and  Philan- 
thropy was  started  with  a  Board  of  thirty  prominent 
citizens  representing  donors,  institutions  and  general 
public.  The  following  year,  the  Cleveland  Welfare  Coun- 
cil was  started,  to  act  as  an  advisory  body  to  the  new  City 
Department  of  Public  Welfare,  and  to  provide  a  city-wide 
clearing  house  for  surveys  and  other  welfare  activities 
and  plans.  In  1917,  the  Welfare  Council  and  the  Federa- 
tion for  Charity  and  Philanthropy  were  merged  under 
the  new  name  of  the  Welfare  Federation  of  Cleveland. 
In  this  organization  over  sixty  agencies  are  allied  in 
money-raising  activities,  and  some  twenty  others  arc 
cooperating  members. 

The  result  of  this  movement  in  Cleveland  has  been 
a  tremendous  increase  in  the  number  of  persons  giving  to 


44  SOCIAL  WORK 

social  work,  and  in  the  amount  of  money  raised.  It  has 
brought  about  much  closer  cooperation  among  the  various 
agencies  of  the  city,  and  a  larger  appreciation  of  the  needs 
of  the  community  as  a  whole. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  a  bit  misleading  to  describe 
these  organizations  as  financial  federations,  but  the  finan- 
cial aspect  of  their  work  is  the  key  to  many  of  their  other 
activities.  Roscoe  C.  Edlund  has  pointed  out  clearly  the 
way  in  which  cooperative  budget  making  and  money 
raising  contributes  toward  the  development  of  com- 
munity planning. 

"  If  the  representatives  of  all  agencies  that  are  mem- 
bers of  a  community-wide  federation  come  together  to 
put  on  the  table  before  them  the  plans  which  are  to  cost 
money,  and  if  these  representatives  go  into  the  details  as  to 
what  each  expenditure  means,  they  are  by  that  very  act 
beginning  to  understand  their  united  program  for  the 
community  as  they  never  understood  it  before.  In  the 
doing  of  it,  they  are  bound  to  weigh  one  need  against 
another;  they  are  bound  to  see  where  are  the  gaps;  and 
they  are  bound  to  see  where  there  is  overlapping.  Co- 
operative budget  making,  then,  is  the  beginning  of  co- 
operative social  service  planning  of  a  different  sort  from 
that  where  each  agency  simply  asks  the  community  for  the 
amount  of  funds  which  in  its  own  judgment  is  necessary 
for  its  work,  that  judgment  not  being  checked  up  by 
comparison  with  the  plans  of  other  social  agencies  in  the 
same  city." 

At  least  passing  mention  should  be  made  of  the  "  war 
chests"  of  1917-18,  and  the  great  Seven-fold  Drive  of 
1918.  The  principles  underlying  both  of  these  movements 
were  identical  with  those  which  lie  back  of  the  more  per- 
manent federations.  They  took  their  cue  from  the  centrali- 
zation of  the  business  world  and  large  scale  production 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES       45 

in  industry.  In  spite  of  their  many  faults,  they  unques- 
tionably resulted  in  tremendous  saving  of  energy  and  time, 
and  greatly  increased  the  money  which  was  raised. 

AMALGAMATION 

Finally,  we  may  observe  some  cases  of  complete  amal- 
gamation of  previously  independent  social  agencies. 
Sometimes  this  fusion  comes  about  under  private  aus- 
pices, as  in  the  case  of  the  older  charity  organization 
societies,  and  sometimes  under  government  auspices. 

An  example  of  the  first  type  of  amalgamation  is  the 
Social  Service  Bureau  of  Houston,  Texas.  The  Social 
Service  Bureau  took  over  the  activities  previously  carried 
on  by  the  Houston  Settlement  Association,  the  Anti-Tu- 
berculosis League,  the  Harris  County  Humane  Society, 
the  Houston  Kindergarten  Association,  and  the  Play- 
ground Association.  This  consolidation  was  brought 
about  under  more  or  less  external  pressure.  A  consider- 
able sum  of  money  in  the  form  of  a  municipal  subsidy 
was  also  held  out  as  an  inducement  for  coming  together. 
But  the  Social  Service  Bureau  is  still  a  private  agency, 
and  in  no  sense  a  part  of  the  city  government. 

Fresno  County,  California,  is  a  good  example  of  amal- 
gamation under  public  auspices.  There  was  created  in 
1916  a  County  Relief  and  Employment  Commission, 
appointed  by  the  Board  of  Supervisors,  to  take  over  the 
work  of  the  county  outdoor  relief  department,  the  munic- 
ipal employment  bureau  and  a  citizens'  relief  commit- 
tee. The  commission  itself  consisted  of  seven  unpaid 
members  who  were  authorized  by  ordinance  to  employ 
certain  paid  workers.  After  a  year's  trial  it  was  decided 
to  carry  the  plan  of  consolidation  still  farther.  Under  the 
head  of  a  new  Commission  of  Public  Welfare  there  were 
brought  together  the  work  of  the  Relief  and  Employment 


46  SOCIAL  WORK 

Commission,  the  administration  of  the  county  hospital, 
almshouse,  orphanage  and  dispensary  and  a  private  organi- 
zation known  as  the  Fresno  County  Humane  Society. 

After  watching  the  growth  of  the  Fresno  County  plan, 
the  California  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections 
undertook  to  organize  similar  commissions  in  other  coun- 
ties. In  each  instance  the  local  situation  was  carefully 
studied  and  a  special  ordinance  was  drafted.  Something 
like  ten  other  counties  have  since  adopted  such  plans  for 
correlation  of  their  social  agencies. 

Similar  schemes  are  being  worked  out  in  Iowa  and 
North  Carolina.  The  so-called  Iowa  plan,  briefly,  in- 
volves the  creation  of  a  central  organization  variously 
known  as  social  welfare  bureau,  social  welfare  league, 
or  social  service  league.  This  board  is  composed  of  rep- 
resentative men  and  women  who  serve  without  pay;  the 
members  of  the  county  board  of  supervisors  are  included 
as  members  ex-offkio.  Under  the  control  of  this  board 
is  centered  all  of  the  private  charity  of  the  community 
and  the  handling  of  the  county  poor  fund.  The  latter  is 
secured  by  utilizing  the  same  worker  for  the  two  offices  of 
secretary  of  the  central  bureau  and  of  that  of  overseer  of 
the  poor.  Private  and  county  funds  are  kept  distinct. 
Salaries  of  the  trained  workers  and  other  administrative 
expenses  are  divided  by  mutual  agreement  between  the 
central  board  and  the  county  board.  The  plan  is  a  purely 
voluntary  one  and  has  been  adopted  following  local  agita- 
tion, and  in  several  instances  was  preceded  by  a  brief  sur- 
vey of  the  field 

The  North  Carolina  scheme  differs  from  those  of 
Iowa  and  California  in  that  the  state  law  now  compels 
every  county  to  have  a  Superintendent  of  Public  Welfare, 
responsible  directly  to  a  County  Board  of  Public  Welfare 
and  indirectly  to  the  corresponding  state  department.  The 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES         47 

plan  is  somewhat  less  flexible  than  the  others,  but  the 
chief  difficulty  has  been  that  of  finding  persons  qualified 
to  assume  the  duties  of  Superintendent  of  Public  Welfare. 

Just  where  the  Board  of  Public  Welfare  idea  origi- 
nated is  hard  to  say,  but  one  of  the  first  departments  of 
this  sort  was  organized  in  Kansas  City  in  1910.  The  Kan- 
sas City  Board  brought  together  under  a  single  superin- 
tendent the  following  varied  but  related  departments. 
It  has  first  of  all  a  research  department  which  has  made 
studies  of  employment,  housing  conditions,  industrial  ac- 
cidents, child  labor  and  other  social  problems.  The  Board 
also  carries  on  the  work  of  charities'  endorsement.  It 
has  a  Social  Service  Department  correlated  with  the  Kan- 
sas City  Provident  Association  to  carry  on  relief  work.  It 
maintains  a  Charities'  Registration  Bureau,  a  Free  Legal 
Aid  Bureau,  Welfare  Loan  Agency,  and  Free  Employment 
Bureau  for  men  and  women  who  are  temporarily  stranded 
or  unable  to  work.  It  provides  meals  and  lodging  at  the 
Helping  Hand  Institute.  It  maintains  departments  of 
factory  and  housing  inspection.  It  administers  a  munic- 
ipal farm  for  male  misdemeanants,  women's  reformatory 
and  parole  department,  and  provides  relief  to  prisoners' 
families  while  the  men  are  in  prison.  It  supervises  the 
commercial  recreation  of  the  city,  dance  halls,  skating 
rinks  and  moving  pictures.  Since  the  organization  of  the 
Kansas  City  Board  of  Public  Welfare  in  1910,  similar  de- 
partments have  been  established  in  Cleveland,  Dayton, 
Chicago,  St.  Joseph,  St.  Louis,  Denver,  Duluth,  Omaha, 
and  various  other  places. 

We  have  seen  how  the  multiplication  of  social  agen- 
cies, particularly  during  the  nineteenth  century,  gave  rise 
to  an  enormous  amount  of  overlapping,  neglect,  friction, 
misunderstanding  and  general  waste  of  effort.  We  have 
seen  that  there  is  still  very  great  need  for  further  coor- 


48  SOCIAL  WORK 

dination  of  our  many  organizations.  We  are  led  to  sus- 
pect that  not  a  few  could  well  be  dispensed  with.  But  at 
the  same  time,  we  have  noted  the  growing  tendency  to 
bring  independent  organizations  together,  and  to  coordi- 
nate their  activities. 

This  movement  toward  correlation  has  aroused  no  lit- 
tle hostility  among  some  of  the  older  social  agencies.  They 
fear  that  there  is  danger  that  their  own  work  may  be  swal- 
lowed up  in  a  great  impersonal  federation  which  will  force 
all  of  its  constituent  members  into  a  "  drab  unindividual- 
ized  uniformity."  No  doubt,  there  is  in  some  cases  the 
risk  that  the  central  council  or  the  federation  may  become 
autocratic  and  result  in  more  harm  than  good.  No  doubt, 
for  some  people,  interest  in  amalgamation  and  consoli- 
dation has  become  a  sort  of  fad  or  craze.  But  for  all 
that,  no  one  can  deny  the  very  great  need  for  correlation, 
and  no  careful  observer  would  be  likely  to  deny  that  it 
is  actually  coming  to  pass,  whether  he  desires  it  or  not. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 
National  and  State  Organizations 

See  the  "  Survey "  for  directories  of  social  agencies  and  announce- 
ments of  meetings. 

See  Bulletins  of  the  National  Conference  of  Social  Work  for  infor- 
mation about  state  conferences. 

Hendricks,  Genevieve  P. :  Handbook  of  Social  Resources  of  the 
United  States.  Washington:  Amer.  Red  Cross,  1921. 

Supervision 

Warner,  A.  G. :  American  Charities.    Third  Ed.,  Chap.  21. 
Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of  Social  Work  (formerly 
National    Conference   of   Charities    and   Correction),    especially 

1893,  33-SU  1909,  397-413,  526- 

See  reports  of  various  State  Boards  of  Charities,  e.g.,  Indiana  Board 
of  State  Charities,  California  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rections, Georgia  State  Board  of  Public  Welfare,  New  York 
State  Board  of  Charities. 


CORRELATION  OF  SOCIAL  AGENCIES        49 

See  reports  of  various  Municipal  Charities  Commissions,  e.g.,  Los 
Angeles  Social  Service  Commission,  Houston  Foundation. 

See  reports  of  various  Charities  Endorsement  Committee,  e.g.,  Chi- 
cago Association  of  Commerce,  Columbus  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, Minneapolis  Civic  and  Commerce  Association,  St.  Louis 
Business  Men's  League. 

Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of  Social  Work,  especially 
1913,  84-92,  i oo-ii i ;  1916,  329-336;  1919,  703-709. 
Councils  of  Social  Agencies 

McLean,  Francis  H. :  The  Central  Council  of  Social  Agencies.  New 
York,  Amer.  Ass'n.  for  Org.  Fam.  Soc.  Work,  1919. 

See  reports  of  various  councils,  e.  g.,  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  Minneap- 
olis, St.  Louis. 

Financial  Federations 

Financial  Federations.  Report  of  Special  Committee  of  Amer.  Assn. 
for  Org.  Charity.  New  York,  1917. 

Proceedings  Nat.  Conf.  Soc  Work,  especially  1913,  111-115 ;  1917,  503- 
521;  1918,  589-595,  605-614;  1919,  670-679,  697-703,  710-724. 

Jacobs,  Joseph:  The  Federation  Movement  in  American  Jewish 
Philanthropy.  Amer.  Jewish  Year-Book,  1915-16,  159-198. 

See  reports  of  various  financial  federations,  e.g.,  Baltimore  Alliance 
of  Charitable  and  Social  Agencies,  Cleveland  Welfare  Federation, 
Milwaukee  Centralized  Budget  of  Philanthropies. 

Amalgamation 
See  reports  of  State  Boards   of  Administration  or  Control,  e.g., 

Illinois  Department  of  Public  Welfare,   Iowa  State  Board  of 

Control,   Ohio    State   Board  of   Administration,   Rhode    Island 

Board  of  State  Charities  and  Corrections. 
McClenahan,  Bessie  A.:  Iowa  Plan  for  the  Combination  of  Public 

and  Private  Relief,  University  of  Iowa  Studies  in  Social  Science. 

Vol.  5,  No.  3,  1918. 
County  Outdoor  Relief  in  California.     Bulletin  of  the  State  Board 

of  Charities  and  Corrections,  1918. 

Proceedings,  Nat.  Conf.  Soc.  Work,  1918,  595-604;  1919,  546-549. 
Survey,  41,  872;  43,  140-143. 
See  reports  of  various  municipal  Boards  of  Public  Welfare,  e.g., 

Chicago,  Dayton,  Kansas  City,  Omaha. 
Proceedings,  Nat.  Conf.  Soc.  Work,  1916,  306-316,  387-418. 
See  reports  of  Houston,  Texas,  Social  Service  Bureau. 


CHAPTER  III 
PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK 

As  we  look  over  the  field  of  social  work,  we  find  three 
fairly  distinct,  though  not  incompatible  purposes  mani- 
fested. The  first  is  naturally  the  curative,  the  effort  to 
care  for  those  who  are  now  sick,  hungry,  or  otherwise 
in  need.  The  second  is  the  preventive.  Its  program  is  that 
of  guarding  against  the  recurrence  of  sickness,  unemploy- 
ment, delinquency,  etc.  This  is  a  newer  idea,  but  it  seems 
to  be  the  dominant  motif  in  social  work  today.  The  third 
purpose  is  the  constructive,  not  merely  seeking  to  ward  off 
evils  that  beset  us,  but  looking  forward  to  the  positive 
achievement  of  health  and  happiness.  So  far  as  social 
work  is  concerned,  this  idea  is  the  newest  of  all  and  may 
belong  to  the  future  rather  than  to  the  past.  Of  course, 
none  of  these  purposes  has  ever  been  wholly  absent,  and 
any  given  program  of  work  may  embody  all  three.  But 
there  is  this  difference  of  emphasis  which  it  seems 
important  to  examine  rather  carefully. 

THE   PUBLIC   HEALTH    MOVEMENT 

The  organized  avoidance  of  human  ills  seems  to  have 
made  its  first  appearance  in  the  field  of  preventive  medi- 
cine and  public  health.  We  will  note  later  the  way  in 
which  modern  science  has  made  possible  the  control  of  cer- 
tain communicable  diseases.  But  first  we  will  consider 
some  of  those  agences  which  have  utilized  this  growing 
scientific  knowledge  and  made  it  contribute  directly  to  the 
public  health  movement. 

One  of  the  most  notable  organizations  is  the  National 
50 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    51 

Association  for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis, 
now  known  as  the  National  Tuberculosis  Association, 
which  was  founded  in  1905.  The  motive  of  this  society  is 
not  that  of  providing  care  for  the  indigent  sick,  but  a  direct 
endeavor  to  combat  disease  and  promote  public  health.  The 
clinics  which  have  been  started  and  supported  by  the  Asso- 
ciation are  regarded  as  partly  educational  and  partly  for 
the  purpose  of  diagnosing  and  treating  cases  of  tubercu- 
losis. A  large  part  of  the  work  has  been  the  spreading  of 
educational  propaganda,  from  lectures  and  moving  picture 
shows,  to  advertising  leaflets  and  Red  Cross  seals.  The 
visiting  nurse,  also,  has  had  an  important  part  in  the  edu- 
cational work  of  this  organization.  But  perhaps  the  most 
significant  feature  of  its  activities  has  been  the  stimulation 
of  interest  in  health  matters  among  school  children, 
through  the  organization  of  the  Modern  Health  Crusaders. 

Another  phase  of  the  public  health  movement  has  been 
the  campaign  to  "  Save  the  Babies  ".  Starting  with  some 
local  efforts,  this  developed,  in  1909,  into  the  National  As- 
sociation for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortal- 
ity, now  known  as  the  American  Child  Hygiene  Asso- 
ciation. The  work  of  this  Society,  like  that  of  the  one 
just  named,  is  largely  educational,  through  the  holding 
of  conferences,  distribution  of  literature,  lectures  and  the 
publication  of  a  magazine.  The  purpose  is  to  acquaint  the 
general  public  with  means  of  preventing  infant  mortality 
and  sickness.  At  the  same  time,  a  marked  influence  is  be- 
ing exercised  upon  the  medical  profession, 

A  large  part  in  this  movement  has  also  been  taken  by 
the  Federal  Children's  Bureau,  which  has  conducted 
numerous  investigations  into  the  causes  and  means  of  pre- 
venting infant  mortality.  The  Children's  Bureau  has  also 
utilized  lectures,  conferences,  exhibits,  leaflets  and  other 
forms  of  publicity. 


52  SOCIAL  WORK 

Under  the  stimulus  of  these  and  other  agencies,  dis- 
pensaries and  out-patient  departments  for  the  treatment 
of  crippled  children  and  sick  babies  have  been  established 
in  large  numbers.  But  most  significant  of  all,  a  great  many 
new  clinics,  or  rather  advisory  conferences,  have  been 
founded  for  "  well  babies." 

A  third  phase  of  the  public  health  movement  is  fre- 
quently'referred  to  as  school  hygiene.  By  this  is  meant 
medical  inspection  of  school  children,  school  clinics,  school 
nurses  and  special  instruction  in  personal  hygiene.  Medical 
inspection  of  schools  at  first  was  practically  restricted  to  the 
detection  of  contagious  diseases,  but  from  this  its  scope 
has  been  extended  in  many  communities  to  the  discovery 
of  diseases  of  every  description,  and  of  various  physical 
and  mental  defects.  In  spite  of  oppositon  on  the  ground 
that  this  was  interfering  with  personal  liberty,  the  practice 
has  spread  to  almost  every  city  in  America  and  to  a  great 
many  rural  communities.  Of  course  the  mere  detection  of 
defects  is  of  little  consequence  unless  something  is  done  for 
their  removal.  So  in  addition  to  advising  school  children 
and  their  parents  about  their  eyes,  teeth,  throats,  etc.,  many 
school  departments  have  established  clinics,  and  have  added 
visiting  nurses  to  their  staff. 

A  fourth  phase  of  the  public  health  movement  is  illus- 
trated by  the  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene. 
This  organization  came  into  existence  in  1909  in  response 
to  a  wide-spread  belief  that  some  national  agency  should  be 
created  to  help  protect  the  mental  health  of  the  public,  to 
work  for  the  prevention  of  nervous  and  mental  disorders, 
and  to  help  to  raise  the  standards  of  care  and  treatment  of 
the  insane  throughout  the  United  States.  This  agency,  like 
the  others  we  have  noted,  devotes  itself  largely  to  investi- 
gation and  educational  propaganda.  It  has  stimulated  the 
establishment  of  psychopathic  clinics  and  hospitals  such  as 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    53 

the  Phipps  Clinic  in  Baltimore,  and  the  Boston  Psycho- 
pathic Hospital.  In  Massachusetts,  a  chain  of  such  clinics 
has  been  established  all  over  the  state  for  the  purpose  of 
doing  preventive  and  follow-up  work. 

A  similar  activity  is  that  of  the  American  Social  Hy- 
giene Association,  which  announces  that  it  stands  for  the 
conservation  of  the  family,  the  repression  of  prostitution, 
the  reduction  of  venereal  diseases,  and  the  promotion  of 
sound  sex  education.  In  numerous  cities,  clinics  have  been 
established  for  the  treatment  and  control  of  venereal  dis- 
ease; and 'during  the  recent  war,  the  United  States  Public 
Health  Service  and  the  War  Department  established  a 
large  number  of  such  clinics  especially  for  the  protection 
of  the  soldiers. 

Finally,  we  may  note  the  health  center  which  is  being 
promoted  especially  By  the  American  Red  Cross.  A  health 
center  is  described  as  the  physical  headquarters  of  the 
public  health  work  of  the  community.  It  constitutes  a 
business-like  way  of  putting  health  activities  both  public 
and  private  under  one  roof  in  daily  touch  and  in  complete 
mutual  understanding.  The  health  center  thus  represents 
one  of  the  latest  steps  in  the  evolution  of  public  health 
work  and  serves  to  bring  together  important  but  usually 
independent  health  campaigns,  such  as  those  mentioned 
above. 

LABOR  LEGISLATION 

Another  phase  of  the  preventive  movement  is  to 
be  seen  in  the  field  of  labor  legislation.  This  may  be 
considered  as  having  been  begun  with  the  English  law  of 
1802,  which  had  as  its  principal  object  the  protection  of 
health  and  morals  of  pauper  children  employed  in  cotton 
factories.  From  this  legislation  has  gone  on  to  include 


54  SOCIAL  WORK 

other  groups  of  working  people,  and  many  aspects  of  their 
working  conditions. 

The  hours  of  labor  were  first  restricted  for  children, 
and  later  limitations  were  placed  upon  the  hours  that  wom- 
en might  spend  in  factories.  Most  of  the  American  states 
now  place  maximum  limits  of  varying  amounts  for  both 
of  these  groups,  but  there  has  been  relatively  little  legisla- 
tion to  regulate  the  hours  that  men  may  work.  Limits 
have  been  placed  upon  the  working  day  for  federal  and 
many  state  employes.  Also  the  time  that  railway  workers 
may  spend  on  duty  is  an  object  of  regulation  in  numerous 
states.  But  practically  the  only  group  of  grown  men 
affected  by  such  laws  is  that  engaged  in  underground 
mining. 

In  addition  to  undertaking  the  control  of  hours  of 
labor,  most  modern  states  also  regulate  the  manner  of 
paying  wages.  Frequently  they  require  that  payments 
must  be  made  weekly  or  bi-weekly.  Often  they  forbid 
payment  in  the  form  of  script  or  store  orders,  and  under- 
take to  prevent  compulsory  dealing  at  company  stores. 
But  more  important  than  these  have  been  the  minimum 
wage  laws,  the  first  of  which  was  passed  by  the  Parliament 
of  Victoria,  Australia,  in  1896.  Since  that  time,  numerous 
American  states  have  passed  similar  laws,  and  their  con- 
stitutionality has  been  upheld  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  in  the  famous  Oregon  case.  The  usual  plan 
has  been  not  to  fix  a  minimum  wage  directly  by  law,  but 
to  create  boards  or  commissions  with  the  authority  to 
hold  hearings,  conduct  investigations,  and  make  orders 
for  specified  industries  and  covering  specified  periods 
of  time. 

Another  group  of  labor  laws  has  had  to  do  with  health 
and  safety  of  the  working  people.  They  cover  such  mat- 
ters as  light,  air,  seats,  lavatories,  rest  rooms,  first  aid 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    55 

equipment,  enclosure  of  dangerous  machinery,  warning 
signs,  etc. 

Still  another  group  of  laws  has  modified  the  Common 
Law  affecting  responsibility  for  accidents.  Under  the 
Common  Law,  the  employer  is  obliged  to  provide  his 
workmen  with  a  reasonably  safe  place  in  which  to  work, 
and  is  liable  for  any  accident  resulting  from  failure  to 
display  this  ordinary  prudence  and  care.  These  precau- 
tions having  been  taken,  the  employe  assumes  all  the  risks 
and  hazards  incident  to  the  employment,  or  arising  out  of 
negligence  and  carelessness  of  fellow  servants. 

In  what  are  known  as  Employers'  Liability  Acts,  the 
duties  of  employers  have  been  more  definitely  described; 
the  fellow  servant  and  contributory  negligence  doctrines 
have  been  modified  or  set  aside,  and  employers  have  been 
made  liable  for  injuries  occurring  under  specified  circum- 
stances. The  Employers'  Liability  Acts  have  rested  on  the 
assumption  that  it  is  possible  to  fix  responsibility  for  acci- 
dents definitely  upon  individuals  and  that  the  best  way  to 
prevent  accidents  is  to  make  the  blameworthy  parties  bear 
the  consequences  of  their  negligence.  But  because  acci- 
dents arise  largely  from  the  necessities  of  modern  indus- 
try rather  than  from  individual  fault,  it  has  come  to  be 
felt  quite  generally  that  the  cost  of  protection  should  be  a 
charge  upon  the  industry. 

This  opinion  has  been  fully  accepted  in  most  countries 
of  the  civilized  world,  and  the  law  of  Employers'  Liability 
has  usually  been  superseded  by  Workmen's  Compensation 
Acts,  which  compel  the  employer  to  indemnify  his  work- 
man for  every  injury  not  caused  by  the  misconduct  of  the 
victim  himself.  The  compensation  is  usually  fixed  and 
definite,  though  ordinarily  adjusted  to  the  seriousness  of 
the  accident,  the  period  of  incapacity,  and  the  number  of 
persons  dependent  upon  the  victim.  In  order  to  insure  the 


S6  SOCIAL  WORK 

payment  of  the  compensation,  employers  in  many  states 
are  compelled  to  take  out  accident  insurance  for  their  work- 
men, either  with  private  companies  or  with  the  state  itself. 
Thus  protection  against  industrial  accidents  has  progressed 
from  the  old  common  law  basis  of  assumption  of  risk,  con- 
tributory negligence,  and^the  fellow  servant  doctrine, 
through  Employers'  Liability  and  Workmen's  Compensa- 
tion to  Compulsory  Accident  Insurance. 

SOCIAL  INSURANCE 

Accidents,  however,  represent  only  one  group  of  the 
incidents  of  life  against  which  provision  may  be  made  by 
insurance.  Some  of  the  others  are  sickness,  old  age,  in- 
validity, unemployment,  maternity  and  death.  In  a  num- 
ber of  countries,  such  insurance  has  been  made  compulsory 
for  all  people  with  incomes  under  a  certain  amount. 
Among  these  countries  are  Germany,  Austria,  Hungary, 
Great  Britain,  Russia,  Norway  and  The  Netherlands. 
Some  other  countries  such  as  Denmark,  Switzerland  and 
France  have  established  voluntary,  subsidized  systems. 

In  about  fifteen  states,  commissions  have  been  ap- 
pointed to  investigate  one  or  more  phases  of  social  insur- 
ance and  report  to  the  Governor  and  Legislature.  Of 
these,  the  California,  New  York  and  Ohio  commissions 
rendered  favorable  reports;  while  those  of  Illinois,  Con- 
necticut and  Wisconsin  brought  in  adverse  reports.  So 
far,  no  American  state  seems  to  have  got  beyond  the  com- 
mission stage  of  Social  Insurance. 

The  question  may  fairly  be  raised — Is  compulsory  in- 
surance democratic?  The  active  opposition  of  many  trade 
unions,  employers  and  physicians  at  least  accounts  for  the 
.  failure  to  develop  such  a  scheme  in  the  United  States.  But 
in  each  instance,  there  seems  to  be  a  special  reason  for  the 
hostility,  and  a  selfish  interest  that  is  responsible.  At  all 
events,  no  one  would  be  likely  to  deny  that  social  insurance 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    57 

is  very  much  more  democratic  than  charity,  and  that  it  is 
infinitely  more  useful  for  the  prevention  of  poverty 
and  misfortune. 

Perhaps  the  best  known  step  in  this  direction  which 
has  been  taken  in  America  is  the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors' 
Insurance  Act  of  1917.  This  took  the  place  of  the  time- 
honored  pension  system  as  a  means  of  protecting  the  fam- 
ilies of  men  who  offered  their  lives  for  their  country.  The 
pensions  of  earlier  times,  like  the  bonuses  of  today,  were 
degrading  and  disgraceful.  The  War  Risk  Insurance  is  a 
straightforward  business  proposition  that  inspires  self- 
respect,  develops  thrift  and  protects  against  the  proverbial 
rainy  day. 

Unfortunately,  the  administration  of  the  War  Risk 
Insurance  has  been  far  from  perfect.  The  commercial 
Insurance  companies  have  developed  gradually  and  accu- 
mulated an  invaluable  fund  of  experience.  But  the  Gov- 
ernment was  faced  with  the  necessity  for  quickly  setting  up 
the  complicated  machinery  to  handle  an  enormous  business 
enterprise.  It  was  inevitable  that  there  should  have  been 
delay  and  confusion.  Hence,  there  has  been  considerable 
dissatisfaction  especially  among  those  least  able  to  appre- 
ciate the  difficulties  under  which  the  Bureau  was  working. 
Nevertheless,  it  seems  likely  that  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment is  in  the  insurance  busness  to  stay. 

THE  COOPERATIVE  MOVEMENT 

Another  movement  which  is  contributing  to  the  solu- 
ton  of  the  economic  problems  with  which  social  workers 
have  to  deal  is  the  growth  of  cooperation,  especially  among 
consumers.  Potentially  Jt,  js  a  powerful  enemy  of  the 
high  cost  of  living  and  a  preventive  of  poverty,  but  to  the 
present  time  it  does  not  seem  to  have  made  much  progress 
in  the  United  States. 


$8  SOCIAL  WORK 

The  initiation  of  the  cooperative  movement  is  usually 
credited  to  the  beginning  made  about  a  hundred 
years  ago  under  the  guidance  of  Robert  Owen  in  England. 
But  it  is  probably  best  known  in  the  form  of  the  retail 
stores  of  the  Rochdale  system.  This  scheme  of 
consumers'  cooperation  has  been  eminently  successful  in 
England,  and  similar  associations  have  had  noteworthy 
growth  on  the  Continent.  In  the  United  States,  however, 
it  has  made  much  less  headway.  Probably  the  reasons  are 
the  greater  mobility  of  our  population,  and  national  habits 
of  wastefulness  and  inattention  to  small  economies,  the 
consequent  lack  of  savings  from  which  to  provide  capital, 
and  the  opposition  of  both  retail  and  wholesale  merchants. 

Cooperation  has  been  by  no  means  limited  to  the  retail 
business.  In  Great  Britain,  in  particular,  there  have  been 
developed  wholesale  societies,  and  the  consumers'  organi- 
zations have  entered  upon  cooperative  production.  These 
likewise  have  been  exceedingly  successful  in  Great  Britain, 
but  have  had  very  little  development  in  America.  One 
recent  example  which  has  aroused  considerable  attention 
has  been  the  effort  of  railway  train-men  to  purchase  co- 
8peratively  or  manufacture  such  things  as  overalls 
and  gloves. 

Producers'  cooperation  seems  to  date  back  to  the  time 
of  the  American  Revolution.  It,  too,  like  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  consumers,  had  its  origin  in  Great  Britain  and 
seems  to  have  been  most  successful  in  that  country,  though 
it  has  made  definite  progress  in  France  as  well.  Many  ex- 
periments have  been  made,  and  a  relatively  small  number 
of  successes  have  been  bought  at  the  expense  of  numerous 
failures.  Nevertheless,  the  movement  seems  to  have  made 
substantial  though  slow  progress  in  the  two  countries 
named.  This  plan  for  the  management  of  industry 
entirely  by  the  workmen  has  made  very  little  headway 
in  the  United  States,  doubtless  for  reasons  similar  to 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    59 

those  which  have  obstructed  the  development  of  con- 
sumers' cooperation. 

Other  forms  of  cooperation  are  Discount  Societies  and 
Credit  Unions.  The  Discount  Societies  do  not  sell  on  their 
own  account,  but  obtain  reductions  from  traders  in  con- 
sideration of  the  steady  custom  of  their  members.  This 
plan  has  frequently  been  adopted  by  Mutual  Aid  Societies 
and  by  farmers'  organizations.  The  Credit  Unions  seem 
to  have  attained  their  largest  development  in  the  European 
countries,  particularly  among  the  smaller  peasant  farmers. 
Roughly,  the  plan  is  that  of  a  group  of  men  joining  to- 
gether for  the  purpose  of  borrowing  a  considerable  sum  on 
their  joint  security,  each  one  securing  his  share  of  the  sum 
borrowed  and  assuming  his  responsibility  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  whole  sum. 

Similar  to  the  Credit  Unions  are  the  Building  and  Loan 
Associations,  which  are  used  almost  exclusively  to  enable 
members  to  acquire  homes.  These  organizations  have  so 
far  achieved  greater  results  in  the  United  States  than  all 
the  other  forms  of  cooperation  named.  But  while  they 
have  doubtless  aided  many  of  the  so-called  "working  class" 
to  obtain  homes,  they  seem  to  be  patronized  more  often  by 
small  business  and  professional  men  and  salaried  folk. 
Moreover,  the  chief  commercial  profit  appears  to  go  to  out- 
side investors  who  do  not  intend  to  borrow  from  the  asso- 
ciations. Also,  there  is  ground  for  belief  that  in  some 
cities  these  organizations  have  been  manipulated  by  real 
estate  dealers  and  building  contractors. 

"  SOCIALIZED  "  EDUCATION 

Another  type  of  preventive  activity  has  been  develop- 
ing the  last  few  years  within  the  field  of  formal  education. 
For  lack  of  a  more  specific  term  it  may  be  called 
"socialized"  education.  By  this  we  have  in  mind 
compulsory  attendance,  vocational  guidance  and  train- 


60  SOCIAL  WORK 

ing  including  instruction  in  domestic  arts,  part-time 
and  continuation  classes,  school  hygiene,  the  teaching 
of  civics,  wider  use  of  the  school  plant  for  recre- 
ation, community  organization,  and  adult  instruction,  and 
finally  the  new  viewpoint  represented  by  such  advocates 
as  John  Dewey. 

It  certainly  would  be  erroneous  to  say  that  all  these  in- 
novations are  being  made  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
poverty  and  other  forms  of  maladjustment.  The  motive 
back  of  them  is  quite  as  much  constructive  as  preventive, 
in  the  sense  in  which  we  are  using  these  terms.  In  fact, 
definite  results  have  been  accomplished  in  both  directions. 

Social  workers  have  always  been  finding  people  whose 
income  is  inadequate  or  who  are  subject  to  exploitation  be- 
cause of  ignorance,  which  in  turn  may  be  traced  to  inade- 
quate schooling.  This  represents  one  of  the  difficulties  at 
which  the  compulsory  attendance  laws  have  been  aimed. 
But  it  has  been  found  that  it  is  not  enough  to  keep  children 
in  school.  They  must  have  the  sort  of  education  that  meets 
their  particular  needs.  Many  of  them  must  be  ready  by  the 
time  they  are  fourteen  or  fifteen  to  take  their  places  as 
wage-earners.  So  the  rise  of  vocational  guidance  and  vo- 
cational education  has  been  natural  and  necessary.  Again, 
some  children  seem  unable  to  make  progress  in  the  ordi- 
nary classes  and  others  are  found  to  be  definitely  sub- 
normal. The  identification  of  these  individuals  during  the 
school  years  is  important  both  for  them  and  for  society. 

All  these  things  contribute  directly  toward  the  adjust- 
ment of  the  individual  to  his  social  environment,  which  is 
after  all  the  very  heart  of  the  social  worker's  task.  Other 
aspects  of  the  "  socialization "  of  the  curriculum  are 
working  toward  the  same  end.  Instead  of  teaching  as 
civics  merely  the  anatomy  of  American  government,  many 
schools  are  introducing  concrete  discussions  of  live  com- 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    61 

munity  problems.  Instead  of  working  exclusively  at  sep- 
arate tasks,  pupils  are  being  taught  to  cooperate  in  their 
studies.  Student  self-government  and  organized  recre- 
ation also  contribute  to  the  social  education  of  the  young. 
Taken  together,  these  help  the  individual  to  find  his  place 
in  the  community  and  develop  a  sense  of  team-play  and 
civic  responsibility. 

Finally  we  should  note  the  wider  use  of  school  plants 
through  the  introduction  of  night  schools,  classes  for 
adults,  supervised  playgrounds,  dances,  entertainments, 
dramatic  clubs  and  libraries.  The  school  is  coming  to  take 
a  larger  part  in  the  community  life.  Such  activities  as 
these  not  only  help  to  prevent  illiteracy  and  ignorance,  but 
are  instrumental  in  providing  healthy  interests  and  culti- 
vating a  desire  for  things  worth  while. 

It  must  be  clear  to  every  thinking  person  that  the  social- 
ization of  education  in  the  directions  suggested  above  must 
have  a  very  large  part  in  preventing  those  many  ills  with 
which  the  social  worker  is  asked  to  cope.  If  only  people 
knew  how  to  take  care  of  their  bodies,  how  to  choose  an 
occupation  and  prepare  themselves  for  it,  and  how  to  play 
their  part  as  citizens,  many  of  the  difficulties  of  the  prac- 
tical social  worker  would  be  greatly  reduced. 

CAUSES  OF  INTEREST  IN  PREVENTION 
THE  FAILURE  OF  CHARITY 

One  of  the  fundamental  reasons  for  increasing  atten- 
tion to  the  prevention  of  social  maladjustment  has  been  a 
growing  recognition  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  old-fash- 
ioned charity.  Without  question,  indiscriminate  alms- 
giving has  pauperized  many  and  has  frequently  created  a 
veritable  profession  of  begging.  To  be  sure,  the  civilized 
world  had  pretty  generally  eliminated  large  scale  doles  like 
those  which  disgraced  Greece  and  Rome,  and  which  ap- 


62  SOCIAL  WORK 

peared  at  many  a  monastery  during  the  middle  ages,  but  the 
ravages  of  war  have  brought  back  something  which  may 
easily  degenerate  into  just  such  promiscuous  largesses  as 
those  of  bygone  centuries.  Moreover,  we  have  had  for 
many  years  in  America  that  distinctive  figure,  the  "  hobo," » 
and  surely  the  back  door  "  hand-outs  "  have  not  contrib-1 
uted  anything  toward  the  rehabilitation  of  this  care-free 
wanderer.  Furthermore,  it  is  obvious  to  all  thinking  people 
that  the  habits  of  feeding  the  tramp,  of  dropping  quarters 
in  the  blind  man's  hat,  and  similar  indiscriminate  alms,  are 
a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing. 

In  the  second  place,  the  old-fashioned  charity  has 
failed  in  that  it  gave  attention  only  to  those  who  were 
already  in  trouble,  and  usually  overlooked  the  sources 
from  which  the  trouble  came  and  from  which  similar 
trouble  was  sure  to  continue  to  come  unless  those  sources 
were  discovered  and  eliminated.  The  attitude  appar- 
ently was  that  of  assuming  "  the  poor  ye  have 
always  with  you."  Providence  was  held  responsible 
for  sending  the  poor,  and  it  was  not  for  mere  man  to 
inquire  into  the  reason  for  their  distress.  Even  in  our 
own  day,  corporations  have  established  welfare  depart- 
ments to  disburse  medicine  to  the  sick  and  comfort  to  the 
bereaved,  and  have  simultaneously  fought  legislative 
measures  designed  to  prevent  occupational  diseases  and 
accidents.  We  Americans  have  not  thought  this  matter 
through  very  carefully,  but  others  have  reasoned  that  the 
most  perfect  system  of  poor  relief  that  might  ever  be  de- 
vised would  not  eliminate  poverty.  They  have  come  to 
suspect  that  it  might  not  even  reduce  it  to  any  great  extent. 

A  third  reason  for  the  failure  of  the  traditional  phil- 
anthropy has  been  the  general  limitation  of  its  attention  to 
individual  problems.  This  narrowness  is  less  true  of 
modern  "  case  work  "  than  of  medieval  almsgiving,  but  it 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    63 

still  restricts  the  usefulness  of  many  charity  organization 
societies.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  be  the  attitude  of  many  case 
workers  that  the  way  of  salvation  lies  chiefly  through  the 
rehabilitation  of  individual  families,  and  that  programs  of 
community  work  and  of  national  reorganization  are  of 
secondary  importance.  Fortunately,  this  one-sidedness  is 
being  overcome,  and  it  is  being  recognized  that  correlated 
with  case  work  there  must  be  movements  whose  objects 
of  attention  are  not  the  individual  nor  the  family,  but  the 
community,  the  state,  or  the  nation,  or  even  a  league 
of  nations. 

Very  often  charity  as  such  has  failed  because  it  is  un- 
democratic and  implies  a  caste  order  of  society.  In  an 
earlier  day,  it  regarded  the  presence  of  poor  people  not 
merely  as  unavoidable,  but  as  a  public  asset.  Their  ex- 
istence made  possible  the  practice  by  the  well-to-do  of  the 
Christian  virtue  of  charity.  The  giving  of  alms  increased  ¥ 
one's  pride  and  self-respect.  Sometimes,  it  helped  one  to 
achieve  social  or  political  preferment.  Not  infrequently 
the  gifts  of  the  wealthy  were  offered  with  the  hope  of 
silencing  the  demands  for  thoroughgoing  reforms  of 
fundamental  wrongs.  Not  infrequently  the  motive  was 
merely  a  cowardly  desire  to  escape  the  repulsive  presence 
of  misery,  or  a  sentimental  self-indulgence  in  so-called 
"  doing  good." 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  fair  to  recognize  that  even 
the  crudest  charity  has  relieved  much  suffering,  and  that 
modern  organized  charity  has  succeeded  in  helping  a  mul- 
titude of  needy  persons  to  positions  of  self-support  and 
self-respect.  But  even  granting  this,  it  is  clear  to  every 
thinking  social  worker  that  charity  alone  is  inadequate, 
particularly  from  the  viewpoint  of  preventive  and  con- 
structive effort. 

The  traditional  charity,  therefore,  has  failed.     It  has 


64  SOCIAL  WORK 

failed  because  its  indiscriminate  alms  have  encouraged 
beggars  and  produced  paupers.  Its  limited  vision,  which 
saw  only  those  who  were  already  in  trouble,  has  failed  to 
stop  the  source  of  supply.  By  attending  only  to  individual 
problems,  and  by  magnifying  case  work,  it  has  overlooked 
opportunities  for  community  organization  and  construct- 
ive legislation.  By  accepting  "  the  poor  "  as  a  separate 
grade  in  the  social  hierarchy,  it  has  obstructed  the  demo- 
cratic movement. 

THE  DEMOCRATIC   MOVEMENT 

Now  if  the  first  cause  for  a  transition  from  cure  to 

* 

prevention  has  been  the  failure  of  ,the  traditional  phil- 
anthropy, the  second  cause  has  been  the  growing  impetus 
of  the  democratic  movement.  This  has  emphasised  itself  in 
a  great  variety  of  ways.  In  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century  it  appeared  in  the  agitation  of  the  abolitionists,  and 
finally  succeeded  in  sweeping  away  the  institution  of 
human  slavery.  A  little  later,  it  showed  itself  in  the  wide- 
spread effort  to  provide  universal,  free  education.  The 
public  school  system  of  the  United  States  is  one  of  the 
most  potent  factors  both  as  cause  and  as  result  of  the  demo- 
cratic movement.  A  third  aspect  of  this  development  has 
been  the  extension  of  the  franchise.  When  our  Constitu- 
tion was  adopted,  a  rather  small  number  of  men  had  the 
right  to  participate  in  our  government.  Gradually,  the 
franchise  was  extended  to  all  adult  white  men  later  to  the 
negroes ;  and  now  it  has  been  granted  to  women. 

But  still  more  striking  has  been  the  growth  of  trade 

I  unionism,  both  in  Europe  and  in  America.    Undemocratic 
though  they  may  be  in  many  respects,  the  unions  have  con- 
f  tributed  powerfully  toward  the  forcing  of  recognition  for 
\  those  who  previously  had  been  ignored  and  exploited.  Ex- 
•  elusive  and  narrow  though  they  frequently  are,  the  unions 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    65 

have  done  much  to  provide  wider  opportunities  for  those 
who  have  constituted  our  "  disadvantaged  classes."  But 
more  than  that,  the  trade  unions  are  resentful  toward  phil- 
anthropy and  extremely  suspicious  of  social  workers.  They 
feel  keenly  the  undemocratic  character  of  charity.  They 
have  learned  to  fight  the  employer  who  robs  them  with  one 
hand  and  doles  out  alms  with  the  other.  They  will  have 
nothing  of  the  philanthropy  which  is  a  mere  sop  to  keep 
them  from  asking  for  something  more  significant. 

But  even  more  vigorously  opposed  to  the  old-fashioned 
charity  are  the  sociaj!jst£  and  kindred  groups.  Too  often 
have  they  seen  palliative  measures  introduced  as  a  means  of 
thwarting  efforts  for  fundamental  reform  of  serious  evils. 
So  wrought  up  have  they  frequently  been  under  such  ex- 
periences as  these  that  they  not  merely  are  suspicious  of 
the  Ladies  Bountiful  and  employers'  welfare  workers,  they 
frequently  resent  and  despise  all  sorts  of  social  workers. 

Our  purpose  here  is  not  to  justify  nor  to  condemn  the 
socialists  or  the  trade  unionists.  It  is  simply  to  call  atten- 
tion to  their  resentment  and  to  the  inflence  which  they  have 
unquestionably  had  in  changing  the  spirit  and  purpose  of 
social  work.  By  refusing  the  "  hand-me-downs  "  of  the 
rich,  and  spitting  upon  the  condescending  humanitarian, 
they  are  unconsciously  helping  to  make  social  work  a  pro- 
fession devoted  not  only  to  the  alleviation  but  even  more  to 
the  elimination  of  social  ills. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  SCIENCE 

We  have  seen  that  the  old-fashioned  charity  has  failed 
largely  because  it  is  not  preventive,  and  often  is  not  even 
curative  but  only  palliative.  The  democratic  movement  is 
demanding  something  more  fundamental.  It  is  calling  for 
radical  reform  of  social  evils,  i.e.,  a  going  to  the  very  roots 
of  the  matter  and  sparing  nothing  which  may  be  involved  in 
5 


SOCIAL  WORK 

ie  difficulty.  It  is  modern  science  that  provides  the  means 
of  doing  the  preventive  work  in  which  charity  has  failed, 
and  for  which  democracy  is  calling.  No  matter  how  clearly 
men  have  seen  the  inadequacy  of  philanthropy,  no  matter 
how  keenly  they  may  have  desired  to  remove  the  sources 
of  difficulty,  they  could  not  make  much  progress  without 
the  aid  of  science.  How  could  they  have  prevented  typhoid 
fever  without  the  germ  theory  of  disease?  How  could 
they  have  prevented  recurrent  famines  without  scien- 
tific agriculture  ? 

Chemistry,  bacteriology,  neurology  and  the  other 
physical  sciences  have  furnished  us  with  information  and 
>with  specific  means  whereby  we  are  enabled  to  prevent 
numerous  diseases.  These  sciences  have  given  us  vaccina- 
tion, which  has  almost  wiped  out  small-pox  from  the  midst 
of  civilized  people.  They  have  given  us  inoculation  against 
typhoid  fever,  which  was  responsible  for  the  great  differ- 
ence between  the  health  of  army  camps  in  1917-18  and 
those  of  the  Spanish- American  War.  Science  has  fur- 
's nished  us  with  prophylactics  against  venereal  diseases,  and 
1  indirectly  the  means  of  checking  paresis.  By  establishing 
the  connection  between  mosquitoes  and  malaria  and  yellow 
fever,  it  has  enabled  us  to  control  these  dreaded  diseases. 
Through  the  study  of  heredity  and  the  development  of 
vasectomy  and  tubectomy,  we  have  been  provided  with 
means  of  sterilizing  the  unfit  and  checking  in  part  the 
supply  of  mental  defects. 

But  not  less  important  than  the  special  measures  placed 
at  our  disposal  by  physical  science,  has  been  the  attitude 
which  it  has  developed.  In  so  far  as  men  are  imbued  with 
the  scientific  spirit,  they  are  free  from  prejudice  and  super- 
stition. They  face  their  difficulties  frankly,  seek  remedies 
for  them,  and  test  these  proposed  remedies  ruthlessly  by 
observation  and  experiment.  As  scientists,  they  are  dis- 
interested. They  are  as  ready  to  discard  a  theory  of  their 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    67 

own  as  that  of  some  rival  school.  Theirs  is  a  pragmatic 
philosophy  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 

Now  these  attitudes  developed  first  in  the  realm  of 
physical  science.  Perhaps  this  was  because  man's  atten- 
tion was  on  the  conquering  of  new  continents  and  the  im- 
provement of  industrial  processes  before  it  was  centered 
upon  human  relations.  But  there  is  little  question  that  the 
control  of  nature  and  solution  of  problems  in  the  physical 
environment  encouraged  belief  in  the  possibility  of  con- 
trolling human  relations  and  solving  problems  of  the  social 
environment.  If  disease  could  be  cured  and  even  pre- 
vented, why  not  poverty  or  delinquency?  Thus  the  suc- 
cesses of  physical  science  stimulated  the  development  of 
social  science. 

The  theory  of  evolution  likewise  played  a  part  in  the 
rise  of  social  science,  the  extent  of  which  is  not  likely  to  be 
overestimated.  The  knowledge  that  men's  bodies  had  de- 
veloped out  of  previous  forms  suggested  that  perhaps  their 
institutions  were  similarly  the  product  of  a  long  process  of 
evolution.  Once  it  became  clear  that  government,  in- 
dustry, religion,  morals,  family  relations  and  social 
organization  in  general  had  not  always  been  what  they  are 
today,  it  was  but  natural  to  raise  the  question :  Why  not 
make  them  something  different  tomorrow? 

Just  as  the  physical  sciences  have  developed  techniques 
of  observation  and  experiment  for  going  to  the  root  of 
their  various  problems,  so  have  the  social  sciences  under- 
taken to  study  the  underlying  causes  of  social  maladjust- 
ment and  disorganization.  From  the  studies  of  Charles 
Booth,  in  London,  to  the  latest  report  of  some  social  in- 
surance commission,  there  has  been  a  seeking  after  the 
causes  of  poverty  and  means  of  their  elimination.  The 
Children's  Bureau,  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  and  many 
lesser  groups,  have  been  studying  those  factors  in  our 
common  life  which  cast  a  blight  upon  childhood,  and  pos- 


68  SOCIAL  WORK 

sible  measures  for  their  removal.  In  fact,  there  is  no  end 
today  of  investigating,  surveying  and  otherwise  seeking 
after  the  source  of  difficulties  in  the  relations  be- 
tween people. 

Less  immediately  practical,  but  perhaps  more  im- 
portant in  the  long  run,  have  been  the  studies  of  such  men 
as  Cooley,  Thomas,  Mead  and  others,  relating  to  the  basis 
of  social  organization  and  the  causes  of  its  disruption. 
After  all,  social  work  is  fundamentally  a  dealing  with  the 
attitudes  and  relations  of  people.  And  because  this  is  so, 
the  contribution  of  the  social  psychologist  to  practical 
social  work  is  proving  unexpectedly  valuable.  In  another 
way  is  social  science  laying  a  foundation  for  more  ade- 
quate social  work.  In  pointing  out  and  describing  the 
unity  of  the  social  process,  such  men  as  Dewey,  Small  and 
Marshall  have  shown  the  impossibility  of  dealing  with  one 
social  problem  without  affecting  many  phases  of  the  com- 
mon life.  They  are  teaching  the  social  workers  that  they 
cannot  meet  the  needs  of  an  individual  or  family  without 
considering  the  neighborhood,  the  community,  or  the  state. 

Thus  in  manifold  ways  modern  science,  both  physical 
and  social,  is  making  it  possible  for  social  work  to  answer 
the  challenge  of  the  democratic  movement  that  phil- 
anthropy is  a  failure.  The  outstanding  causes,  therefore, 
of  the  present  tendency  to  emphasize  prevention  rather 
than  cure  are  the  failure  of  the  old-fashioned  charity,  the 
growing  impetus  of  democracy,  and  the  techniques  and 
viewpoints  of  modern  science. 

CONSTRUCTIVE   POSSIBILITIES 

But  all  the  time  we  have  been  discussing  the  various 
preventive  methods  and  agencies,  the  reader  must  have  felt 
that  they  involve  something  more  than  the  negative  pro- 


PREVENTIVE  AND  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    69 

gram  of  prevention.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  many  of  them 
do  have  a  positive  aspect  and  a  forward  look,  which  is  only 
faintly  implied  in  the  terminology  that  we  have  been 
using.  The  public  health  movement,  for  example,  seems 
gradually  to  be  outgrowing  the  stage  of  preventive  medi- 
cine and  expanding  into  a  plan  for  increasing  people's 
vitality  and  efficiency,  prolonging  life,  and  enlarging  the 
capacity  to  enjoy  those  things  which  it  has  to  offer. 

Public  education  has  gone  much  farther  than  the  health 
movement  in  seeking  to  build  up  and  construct  definite 
values  rather  than  content  itself  with  the  mere  prevention 
of  illiteracy,  superstition  and  bigotry.  Even  vocational 
education  is  not  thought  of  primarily  as  a  means  of  pre- 
venting poverty,  but  as  a  means  of  increasing  the  economic 
value  of  people's  working  power.  Recreation  is  indeed  a 
means  of  preventing  delinquency  and  other  sorts  of  social 
disorganization,  but  its  claim  upon  us  is  more  than  this,  it 
supplies  something  which  all  of  us  want.  It  gives  us  re- 
laxation; the  joy  of  associating  with  other  people,  and 
competing  with  them  upon  a  friendly  basis,  and  merges  by 
imperceptible  degrees  into  the  noblest  forms  of  art. 

Similarly,  in  the  case  of  labor  legislation,  social  in- 
surance, and  the  cooperative  movement,  attention  is  by  no 
means  limited  to  the  things  we  desire  to  prevent.  It  cen- 
ters equally  if  not  chiefly  upon  an  improved  standard 
of  living. 

All  the  way  along,  it  is  not  the  things  we  want  to  pre- 
vent which  seem  most  important,  but  the  things  which  we 
wish  to  achieve.  Frankly,  social  work  in  the  commonly 
accepted  sense  has  not  got  beyond  the  preventive  stage, 
but  there  is  beginning  to  be  a  vision  of  positive  values  and 
the  possibilities  of  constructive  effort,  which  bids  fair  to 
revolutionize  social  work  of  the  future. 


70  SOCIAL  WORK 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

The  Idea  of  Prevention 

Hollander,  Jacob  H. :  The  Abolition  of  Poverty.  Boston :  Houghton 
Mifflin,  1914. 

Webb,  Sidney  and  Beatrice :  The  Prevention  of  Destitution.  Lon- 
don: Longmans  Green,  1912. 

The  Democratic  Movement 
Croly,  Herbert  D. :  Progressive  Democracy.    New  York :  Macmillan, 

1914- 

McLaughlin,  Andrew  C. :  Steps  in  the  Development  of  American 
Democracy.  New  York:  Abingdon  Press,  1920. 

Kirkup,  Thomas :  A  History  of  Socialism.    London :  Black,  1900. 

Tufts,  James  H. :  The  Real  Business  of  Living  (especially  Part  IV). 
New  York :  Holt,  1918. 

Webb,  Sidney  and  Beatrice :  Industrial  Democracy.  London :  Long- 
mans Green,  1902. 

The  Development  of  Modern  Science 

Dewe,  J.  A. :  History  of  Economics.     Cincinnati :  Benziger,  1908. 
Small,  A.  W.:  "Fifty   Years  of  Sociology  in  the  United  States." 

Amer.  four.  Soc.,  21,  721-864  (May,  1916). 
Sedgwick,  W.  T.,  and  Tyler,  H.  W.:  A  Short  History  of  Science. 

New  York:  Macmillan,  1917. 
Todd,  Arthur  J. :  The  Scientific  Spirit  and  Social  Work.    New  York : 

Macmillan,  1919. 
Williams,  Henry  S. :  The  Story  of  Nineteenth-Century  Science.    New 

York :  Harper,  1900. 

The  Public  Health  Movement 
Davis,  Michael  M.,  and  Warner,  Andrew  R. :  Dispensaries,  Their 

Management  and  Development.     New  York:  Macmillan,  1918. 
Hill,  Hibbert  W.:  The  New  Public  Health.    New  York:  Macmillan, 

1916. 
Mangold,  Geo.  B. :  Problems  of  Child  Welfare  (especially  pp.  19-204). 

New  York:  Macmillan,  1914. 

"  Socialised  "  Education 

Dewey,  John  and  Evelyn :  Schools  of  Tomorrow.  New  York :  Dut- 
ton,  1915. 


PREVENTIVE  AND,  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK    71 

Flexner,  Abraham  and  Bachman,  F.  P. :  The  Gary  Schools,  a  General 

Account.    New  York :  General  Education  Board,  1918. 
King,  Irving:  Social  Aspects  of  Education.    New  York:  Macmillan, 

1913- 
Mangold,  Geo.  B. :  Op.  cit.,  pp.  205-270. 

Labor  Legislation 
Adams,  T.  S.,  and  Sumner,  Helen  L. :  Labor  Problems.    New  York : 

Macmillan,  1905  (Chap.  12). 
Hutchins,  B.  L.,  and  Harrison,  A. :  A  History  of  Factory  Legislation. 

London:  King,  1907. 
Kelley,  Florence :  Some  Ethical  Gains  Through  Legislation.    New 

York:  Macmillan,  1905. 

Social  Insurance 
Frankel,  Lee  K.,  and  Dawson,  Miles  M. :  Workingmen's  Insurance  in 

Europe.    New  York :  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1910. 
Illinois  Health  Insurance  Commission  Report.     Springfield,   1919. 
Seager,  Henry  R. :  Social  Insurance.    New  York:  Macmillan,  1910. 

The  Cooperative  Movement 

Adams,  T.  S.,  and  Sumner,  Helen,  L. :  Op.  cit.,  Chap.  10. 
Fay,  Chas.  R. :  Cooperation  at  Home  and  Abroad.     London :  King, 

1908. 
Ford,  James:  Cooperation  in  New  England.    New   York:   Survey 

Associates,  1913. 


PART  II 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY  HUMANITARIANISM 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION  AND 
SOCIAL  WORK 

So  far  our  study  has  been  of  the  present  and  the  recent 
past  with  an  effort  to  .anticipate  the  future.  Throughout 
the  discussion  we  have  been  dealing  with  phases  of  a 
transition  from  humanitarianism  to  democracy,  from 
philanthropy  to  professional  service.  We  shall  undertake 
now  to  clarify,  and,  indeed,  to  test  our  interpretation  in 
the  light  of  that  humjanitarianism  and  philanthropy  which 
characterized  social  work  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Briefly  and  simply  put,  our  thesis  is  that  the  distinctive 
features  of  nineteenth  century  social  work  were  a  part  of 
the  response  to  needs  which  appeared  in  the  Industrial 
Revolution;  that  its  distinctive  spirit  and  methods  are 
also  traceable  to  that  series  of  economic  and  social  changes. 
To  describe  and  account  for  the  Industrial  Revolution  here 
would  carry  us  beyond  our  present  purpose,  but  it  does 
seem  important  to  review  rapidly  some  of  its  outstanding 
features,  in  order  that  we  may  appreciate  somewhat  the 
tasks  and  the  motives  lying  back  of  industrial  welfare 
work,  charity  organization,  social  settlements  and 
housing  reform. 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION 

Two  hundred  years  ago  industry  was  characterized  by 
the  "  domestic  system."  That  is,  manufacturing  was  for 
the  most  part  carried  on  in  the  homes  of  workmen  or  in 
small  shops  near  by,  where  almost  all  the  processes  were  per- 
formed by  hand.  In  spite  of  these  limitations,  production 
was  on  the  increase,  particularly  in  the  woolen  industry  of 

75 


76  SOCIAL  WORK 

England,  where  the  Industrial  Revolution  first  appeared. 
This  was  in  part  at  least  a  response  to  the  demand  for  some- 
thing to  exchange  for  the  goods  of  the  Orient. 

Presently  the  importation  of  cotton  goods  from  India 
became  a  matter  of  serious  competition  with  the  woolens. 
People  were  using  cotton  more  and  more  in  place  of  wool. 
Hence  a  barrier  was  set  up  in  the  form  of  a  protective  tariff 
against  the  competing  cloth  from  India.  But  an  unexpected 
outcome  of  this  move  was  the  development  of  a  domestic 
cotton  industry. 

From  our  present  point  of  view,  the  most  important 
aspect  of  the  new  manufacture  of  cotton  was  its  relative 
freedom  from  the  restrictions  of  gild  rules  and  merchantil- 
istic  legislation.  The  older  trades  and  industries  were 
minutely  regulated  either  by  the  craftsmen  themselves  or  by 
governments  eagerly  seeking  a  "  favorable  balance  of 
trade."  Being  new,  the  cotton  industry  was  much  freer 
to  develop  in  accordance  with  changing  needs.  Hence  we 
find  that  remarkable  series  of  inventions:  the  fly-shuttle, 
spinning  jenny,  water  frame,  Crompton's  "  mule,"  power 
loom  and  cotton  gin.  All  these  came  out  of  the  efforts  of 
countless  workmen  to  improve  and  adjust  the  various  proc- 
esses involved  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  and 
made  their  appearance  during  the  latter  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  in  England. 

At  the  same  time  the  metal  trades  were  undergoing  an 
equally  important  transformation.  Previously  the  smelt- 
ing of  iron  ore  and  the  manufacture  of  its  products  were 
carried  on  with  charcoal.  But  the  forests  of  England  were 
being  depleted  and  it  became  necessary  to  make  use  of  a 
new  fuel,  coal.  Now  the  use  of  coal  compelled  the  manu- 
facturerers  to  alter  their  equipment  and  their  processes. 
The  manufacture  of  machinery  itself  and  the  use  of  coal  for 
other  purposes  followed.  Presently  there  appeared  the 


HUMANITARIANISM  77 

steam  engine,  steam  hammer,  the  Bessemer  process,  steam- 
boat, locomotive,  steam  press,  etc. 

It  was  largely  through  these  series  of  inventions  that  the 
making  of  goods  by  hand  in  the  home  gave  way  to  large- 
scale  manufacture  in  factories.  The  new  machines  were  so 
heavy  and  so  complicated  that  special  buildings  had  to  be 
erected  for  them.  Moreover,  the  economical  use  of  power 
required  that  it  be  applied  to  many  machines  at  once.  Now 
factories  were  not  absolutely  new,  but  until  the  development 
of  power  machinery  there  was  not  sufficient  advantage  in 
the  factory  to  overcome  the  opposition  of  the  workmen, 
who  naturally  preferred  the  independence  of  home  industry. 
But  through  the  eighteenth  century  inventions  the  factory 
system  rapidly  gained  the  ascendency,  though  not  without 
strenuous  opposition  from  the  hand  spinners  and  weavers. 

In  order  that  the  new  factories  might  be  properly 
manned,  it  was  necessary  to  bring  together  large  numbers 
of  workers.  Under  the  domestic  system  manufacturing 
could  be  carried  on  in  the  open  country  and  in  small  villages. 
But  the  existence  of  a  factory  had  as  its  corollary  a  town  or 
a  city,  and  the  growth  of  these  industrial  centers  was  one  of 
the  marked  features  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  1800 
London  was  the  only  city  in  England  with  a  population 
of  100,000,  and  including  London  only  17  per  cent,  of  the 
population  lived  in  places  of  20,000  and  over.  But  by  the 
middle  of  the  century  this  proportion  had  jumped  to  35 
per  cent.,  and  by  its  close  to  nearly  60  per  cent.  In  1800 
the  largest  city  of  the  United  States  was  Philadelphia  with  a 
population  of  about  70,000,  and  there  were  only  five  cities 
with  more  than  10,000  inhabitants.  But  today  there  are 
about  ten  metropolitan  areas  with  over  one  million  inhab- 
itants each,  and  one  fourth  of  the  entire  population  of  the 
United  States  lives  in  cities  of  more  than  100,000  in- 


78  SOCIAL  WORK 

habitants.  Similar  developments  are  to  be  traced  in  France, 
Germany,  Italy  and  the  other  great  industrial  countries. 

Where  then  did  the  new  manufacturers  secure  their 
workmen  ?  In  England  there  were  three  important  sources 
of  supply.  One  was  the  rural  folk  who  were  crowded  off 
the  great  estates  in  the  course  of  what  are  known  as  the 
"enclosures."  These  were  the  consolidation  of  small  hold- 
ings either  to  substitute  the  pasturing  of  sheep  for  the 
raising  of  crops  or,  more  frequently  in  the  eighteenth 
century  to  make  possible  improved  methods  of  agriculture. 
In  either  case,  many  farm  laborers  and  renters  were  dis- 
possessed and  forced  to  look  elsewhere  for  a  living.  The 
second  source  was  the  laborers  left  stranded  by  the  break- 
down of  the  gilds.  The  third  important  source  of  labor 
was  the  charities.  In  almshouses  and  orphanages  there 
were  thousands  of  "  pauper  "  children  and  adults  whom 
those  in  control  were  only  too  glad  to  dispose  of. 

What  made  the  work  of  these  "  paupers  "  and  other 
unskilled  folk  more  valuable  than  ever  before  was  the 
division  of  labor  and  simplification  of  tasks  in  the  fac- 
tories. Whereas  before,  every  workman  had  a  variety  of 
duties,  under  the  new  conditions  he  was  likely  to  be  as- 
signed to  one  single  step  in  the  process.  This  made  it  pos- 
sible and  profitable  to  utilize  the  labor  of  little  children  and 
unskilled  adults.  Of  course,  such  a  change  meant  that  the 
day's  work  was  more  monotonous  and  that  "  real  wages  " 
— as  distinguished  from  cash  wages — were  often  de- 
creased. It  meant  also  that  workers  could  be  moved 
readily  from  factory  to  factory,  because  processes  were 
more  and  more  standardized.  With  the  increase  of  work- 
ing forces  it  meant  the  substitution  of  numbers  for  names 
and  the  loss  of  personal  contact  between  employers  and 
employes,  the  depersonalizing  of  industry. 

The  displacement  of  domestic  industries  by  factories 


HUMANITARIANISM  79 

meant  that  it  was  less  and  less  possible  for  individual 
workmen  to  own  the  means  of  production.  Even  under 
the  domestic  system  many  weavers  used  looms  which  were 
owned  by  someone  else.  They  frequently  worked  up 
wool  for  a  merchant-middleman  who  owned  the  raw  ma- 
terial and  disposed  of  the  finished  product.  But  in  the 
factory  the  workman  was  essentially  part  of  the  plant.  He 
did  not  supply  the  raw  material  or  the  tools  to  work  with. 
The  place  in  which  he  worked  belonged  to  others  and 
others  sold  the  finished  product.  The  workman  was  thor- 
oughly dependent  upon  the  employer  for  the  means  of 
making  a  living. 

Now  the  obvious  reason  for  this  was  the  very  great 
expense  involved  in  building,  equipping  and  operating  a 
factory.  No  ordinary  workman  could  provide  the  neces- 
sary capital.  Hence  the  factories  were  built  by  those  indi- 
viduals who  already  had  means  or  by  corporations.  Thus 
capitalism  was  given  a  tremendous  stimulus.  This  again 
was  not  new,  but  it  was  only  through  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution that  it  came  to  dominate  the  economic  system. 

Capitalism  meant  preeminently  three  things.  It  meant 
that  people  who  themselves  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
processes  of  production  could  invest  their  money  through 
the  impersonal  corporation.  It  meant  the  substitution  of 
gain  for  enjoyment  as  the  purpose  of  industry,  for  the 
only  object  of  the  corporation  is  to  earn  dividends  for  its 
stockholders.  It  meant  the  piling  up  of  wealth  in  the 
hands  of  a  few  and  the  much  slower  advancement,  if  not 
the  actual  impoverishment  of  the  many. 

Along  with  this  went  the  development  of  two  classes  in 
society,  the  industrial  bourgeoisie  and  the  proletariat. 
Previously  the  important  social  classes  had  been  the 
nobility,  clergy  and  peasantry,  with  a  growing  number  of 
merchants  and  artizans.  Power  had  been  vested  chiefly 


80  SOCIAL  WORK 

in  the  nobility.  But  now  the  "  middle  class  "  came  more 
and  more  to  the  front  in  business,  and  through  its  economic 
strength  gradually  achieved  political  ascendency.  De- 
pendent upon  it,  and  later  in  powerful  opposition  to  it, 
appeared  the  "  working  class." 

THE  RISE  OF  THE  MIDDLE  CLASS 

The  terms  "  middle  class "  and  "  bourgeoisie "  are 
used  with  varying  connotation  and  hence  do  not  have  any 
very  exact  meaning.  However,  they  represent,  in  gen- 
eral, city  folk  as  contrasted  with  the  landed  gentry,  em- 
ployers as  contrasted  with  employes,  people  whose  incomes 
are  derived  from  investments  as  contrasted  with  wage- 
earners.  These  classifications  overlap,  but  do  not  coincide ; 
neither  do  they  make  clear  the  inclusion  of  the  professional 
folk  who  are  usually  grouped  with  the  bourgeoisie. 
Nevertheless,  the  terms  bourgeoisie  and  middle  class  do 
have  a  significance,  recognized  in  common  parlance,  which 
is  sufficient  to  justify  their  use  here. 

Just  as  the  whole  Industrial  Revolution  was  a  gradual 
transition,  so  the  rise  of  the  middle  class  was  not  sudden  or 
spectacular.  With  the  substitution  of  buying  and  selling 
for  barter,  and  the  appearance  of  middlemen  doing  busi- 
ness definitely  for  profits,  the  thirteenth  century  presented 
the  beginnings  of  a  bourgeoisie.  But  it  remained  for  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  to  make  the  bourgeiosie  not 
merely  important  but  dominant  in  the  economic  order. 

The  achievements  of  the  middle  class  in  politics  were 
only  a  little  less  striking  than  those  in  the  realm  of  busi- 
ness. Having  won  a  place  in  the  industrial  world  through 
energy  and  determination,  the  merchants  and  manufac- 
turers naturally  felt  themselves  to  be  more  important  to 
the  nation  than  the  old-fashioned  feudal  nobles.  But  over 
and  above  this  natural  ambition  for  political  power,  there 


HUMANITARIANISM  81 

were  economic  motives.  The  "  captains  of  industry " 
were  anxious  to  be  rid  of  the  merchantilist  regulations 
which  proved  quite  burdensome  to  the  new  methods  of 
manufacture.  In  the  second  place,  the  factory  owners 
wanted  political  power  in  order  to  control  the  working 
people.  They  wanted  everything  to  be  in  their  own  hands. 
Hence  they  emphasized  the  economic  doctrine  of  "  laissez- 
faire  "  or  non-interference  in  business. 

American  politics  have  been  essentially  middle  class 
from  the  start,  but  particularly  so  since  the  Civil  War,  for 
it  is  only  in  the  last  half  century  that  the  United  States  has 
come  to  be  characteristically  a  manufacturing  country. 
One  of  the  most  striking  achievements  of  the  American 
commercial  and  industrial  folk  has  been  the  creation  and 
maintenance  of  high  tariff  walls  "  for  the  protection  of  in- 
fant industries."  More  recently  their  influence  has  mani- 
fested itself  in  the  war-time  legislation,  under  which 
freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  the  press  and  even  freedom 
of  opinion  and  political  affiliation  have  been  interfered 
with,  when  not  actually  suppressed.  The  wholesale  arrests 
and  deportations,  the  expulsion  of  socialists  from  legis- 
latures, and  attempts  to  prevent  the  founding  of  a  "  third 
party  "  are  extreme  efforts  of  the  bourgeoisie  to  con- 
trol government. 

Having  thus  attained  political  power  directly  or  indi- 
rectly the  middle  class  has  utilized  this  power  to  bring 
about  numerous  results.  In  the  first  place,  it  has  secured 
legislation  directly  favorable  to  private  industry  and  com- 
merce. This  has  included  the  maintenance  of  "  law  and 
order,"  advantageous  corporation  laws,  the  granting  of 
franchises  and  even  public  subsidies  to  private  business. 
It  has  sought  the  readjustment  of  taxation  systems  so  as 
to  remove  the  burden  so  far  as  possible  from  the  shoulders 
of  business. 
6 


82  SOCIAL  WORK 

Along  with  these  achievements  of  business  in  politics 
has  come  a  new  era  of  imperialism,  in  which  business  men 
have  succeeded  in  identifying  their  desire  for  new  markets 
and  for  new  fields  for  investment  of  their  surplus  capital 
with  very  real  national  longings  to  have  particular  flags 
wave  over  as  large  expanses  of  the  world's  surface  as  pos- 
sible. This  imperialism  which  has  been  assiduously  culti- 
vated by  the  business  interests  on  the  assumption  that 
"  trade  follows  the  flag,"  was  probably  an  important  cause 
of  the  recent  war.  Of  course,  an  inevitable  accompani- 
ment of  this  new  imperialism  was  the  development 
of  militarism. 

During  the  last  fifty  years  there  have  been  built  up  in 
Europe  and  America  the  greatest  armies  and  navies  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  While  the  demand  for  them 
may  have  arisen  out  of  a  more  or  less  genuine  patriotism, 
this  demand  has  been  actively  stimulated  by  a  great  num- 
ber of  the  middle  class  who  regard  militarism  not  only  as 
a  kind  of  public  insurance  against  the  attacks  of  other 
nations  upon  their  colonies,  commerce  and  industry,  but 
also  as  a  guarantee  of  the  maintenance  of  the  capitalistic 
system.  Indeed,  they  have  counted  largely  upon  military 
training  to  breed  a  servile  spirit.  They  have  utilized  the 
militia  and  other  armed  forces  to  suppress  strikes  and 
various  radical  demonstrations.  They  have  depended  upon 
the  military  band  and  flag-waving  so  to  stir  the  emotions 
of  the  populace  that  differences  of  opinion  concerning  im- 
portant domestic  policies  might  be  forgotten  amid  the  ex- 
citement over  some  real  or  fancied  external  aggression. 

THE  CONFLICT  OF  CLASSES 

Over  against  the  commercial  and  industrial  bourgeoisie 
has  arisen  a  proletariat,  more  and  more  organized  to  de- 
mand a  share  in  the  control  and  the  proceeds  of  industry. 


HUMANITARIANISM  83 

The  workers'  mobilization  for  this  class  conflict  has  in 
general  taken  two  forms,  trade  unionism  and  socialism. 
These  have  been  essentially  fighting1  doctrines.  They  have 
emphasized  the  divergence  of  interests  between  the  cap- 
italists and  the  workers. 

The  trade  unions  have  on  the  whole  accepted  the  ex- 
isting system  of  industry,  and  have  devoted  themselves  to 
securing  a  larger  share  of  its  returns.  They  represent  the 
principle  of  collective  bargaining,  and  have  used  their 
combined  strength  to  secure  shorter  hours,  higher  wages 
and  other  conditions  which  they  regard  as  desirable.  In 
England  the  trade  unions  have  come  of  late  to  include  the 
vast  majority  of  people  who  work  for  wages,  but  in  the 
United  States  they  represent  a  small  minority  drawn 
chiefly  from  the  more  skilled  trades.  Through  the  use  of 
their  most  powerful  weapons,  the  strike  and  the  boy- 
cott, they  have  compelled  employers  to  accede  to  many  of 
their  demands. 

The  socialists,  in  contrast  to  the  trade  unionists,  do  not 
accept  the  capitalistic  system  of  industry,  but  desire  to  see 
it  displaced  as  rapidly  as  possible  by  something  more  demo- 
cratic. They  deny  the  axiom  of  the  orthodox  economists 
of  the  nineteenth  century  that  private  profit  coincides  with 
social  gain.  They  maintain  that  capitalism  is  inefficient  in 
the  production  of  material  goods  and  is  still  more  destruc- 
tive of  human  values.  While  socialists  demand  collective 
ownership  of  the  great  bodies  of  capital  they  usually  ap- 
prove of  the  private  ownership  of  homes,  and  the 
contents  of  homes.  The  communists  go  further.  In 
1847  the  Communist  League  was  organized  in  London. 
The  first  article  of  its  constitution  stated  that  "  The  aim 
of  the  League  is  the  overthrow  of  the  bourgeoisie,  the  rule 
of  the  proletariat,  the  abolition  of  the  old  society  resting 
on  class  antagonisms,  and  the  founding  of  a  new  society 


84  SOCIAL  WORK 

without  classes  and  without  private  property."  The  specific 
aims  of  socialists  have  differed  widely  in  different  times 
and  places.  But  they  stand  for  a  fundamental  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  economic  system,  either  by  evolution  or  revolu- 
tion, which  will  introduce  into  industry  at  least  as  much 
democracy  as  has  been  achieved  in  the  political  system. 

THE  TASKS  OF  SOCIAL  WORK 

The  Industrial  Revolution  brought  in  its  train  a  host  of 
new  problems  pressing  for  solution.  The  insanitary  fac- 
tories, crowded  houses,  long  hours,  low  wages,  employ- 
ment of  women  and  young  children,  periods  of  industrial 
depression  accompanied  by  unemployment  and  monoton- 
ous existence  broken  by  periodical  "  sprees  "  presented  a 
real  challenge  to  those  interested  in  the  welfare  of  their 
fellow  men.  But  these  were  not  all.  Along  with  them 
came  the  break-down  of  customs,  habits  and  morals. 
There  was  a  general  social  disorganization. 

On  the  rural  estates  and  in  the  domestic  industries 
families  lived  and  worked  as  units.  The  members  worked 
together,  played  together,  in  fact,  lived  together  in  the 
most  complete  way  possible.  But  in  the  factory  towns, 
they  had  different  tasks,  different  pleasures,  different  asso- 
ciates. Home  became  mainly  a  place  in  which  to  eat  and 
sleep.  The  absence  of  the  mother  or  the  presence  of 
boarders  further  destroyed  the  unity  of  family  life. 

Community  life,  too,  suffered  disorganization.  Before 
the  growth  of  cities  most  people  lived  in  genuine  com- 
munities wherein  personal  relations  were  only  a  little  less 
intimate  than  within  the  family.  Everyone  knew  every- 
one else,  his  business  and  his  family  history.  But  in  the 
new  towns  and  cities  people  lived  next  door  to  each  other 
without  being  neighbors.  They  came  together  from  places 
widely  separated  and  moved  about  so  much  that  no  neigh- 
borhood or  community  life  could  well  develop. 


HUMANITARIANISM  85 

Under  the  simpler  conditions  there  was  a  single  moral 
code  which  was  generally  accepted  as  "  the  right."  But 
in  the  more  complex  agglomerations  people  were  continu- 
ally coming  in  contact  with  new  "  mores."  They  had  to 
learn  to  get  along  with  people  whose  ethical  principles  were 
very  different  from  their  own.  Some  came  to  question 
not  merely  their  own  code,  but  the  possibility  of  there  being 
any  absolute  distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  Some 
doubtless  thought  their  way  through  to  the  "  relativity  of 
moral  judgments,"  but  the  majority  either  clung  to  their 
old  ways  or  simply  drifted. 

The  mobility  of  the  population  meant  inevitably  the 
necessity  for  constant  adjustment  to  new  sets  of  people  and 
new  conditions  of  living.  The  standardization  of  indus- 
trial processes,  the  improved  means  of  transportation, 
periods  of  industrial  depression  and  unemployment  and  a 
growing  spirit  of  unrest  set  the  population  in  motion,  in- 
creased friction  and  necessitated  continuous  readjustment. 
The  loss  of  personal  relations  in  industry  and  the  separate 
residence  sections  for  bourgeoisie  and  proletariat  have 
widened  the  gulf  of  misunderstanding.  Finally  the  organ- 
ized class  conflict  has  made  the  problems  of  adjusting  per- 
sonal relations  in  modern  society  well-nigh  insoluble. 

The  recognized  tasks  then  which  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution set  for  nineteenth  century  social  work  included :  the 
protection  of  health  through  sanitation  of  factories,  hous- 
ing and  medical  service ;  provision  of  regular  employment 
with  adequate  remuneration;  provision  for  disability  and 
old  age ;  protection  of  children ;  education ;  recreation.  But 
all  these  were  in  fact  subsidiary  to  the  finding  of  a  new 
basis  for  social  organization.  The  old  order  had  disap- 
peared. Before  a  new  one  could  come  into  being  there 
was  an  inevitable  period  of  disorganization  and  confusion. 
To  make  the  most  obviously  necessary  adjustments 


86  SOCIAL  WORK 

was  the  task  set  before  the  social  workers  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

NINETEENTH   CENTURY   HUMANITARIANISM 

The  responses  to  this  new  situation  were  varied.  One 
of  the  first  was  the  revolt  of  the  exploited  victims  of  the 
new  factory  system.  The  working  people  began  to  organ- 
ize, as  we  have  seen,  for  the  removal  of  their  own  dis- 
abilities. Another  response  consisted  in  the  enactment  of 
"  social  legislation,"  laws  for  the  protection  of  the  "  dis- 
advantaged  classes."  This  legislation  was  the  result  of 
agitation  partly  by  the  workers  themselves,  partly  by  their 
philanthropic  friends.  Finally  there  was  the  organization 
of  social  work  by  middle  class  "  uplifters." 

Ecclesiastical  and  public  poor  relief  had  been  long  in 
existence.  Now  they  were  continued  and  extended.  But 
in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  arose  a  group 
of  private,  non-sectarian  charities  supported  and  admin- 
istered by  bourgeois  philanthropists.  The  industrial  wel- 
fare work,  charity  organization  societies,  settlements  and 
housing  reform  that  appeared  in  the  nineteenth  century 
were  essentially  the  contribution  of  the  bourgeoisie  to 
social  work.  Others  of  their  contributions  were  the  new 
interest  in  foreign  missions,  abolition  of  human  slavery, 
non-sectarian  education  and  prison  reform. 

Not  only  did  the  middle  class  develop  these  new  phil- 
anthropies; they  came  to  dominate  many  of  the  older 
charities  as  well.  Indeed,  it  was  only  natural  that  the  class 
which  had  newly  come  to  power  in  business  and  politics 
should  presently  exercise  a  determining  influence  in  the 
field  of  social  work.  The  middle  class  folk  had  the  money 
and  the  leisure. 

The  motives  which  led  them  to  participate  in  humani- 
tarian movements  were  varied.  Perhaps  most  often  it 


HUMANITARIANISM  87 

was  a  genuine  desire  to  help,  frequently  coupled,  however,  • 
with  an  unwillingness  to  "  mix  philanthropy  and  busi- 
ness." That  is,  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  were 
willing  to  make  donations  to  hospitals,  libraries,  schools, 
playgrounds  and  charitable  societies,  so  long  as  there  was 
no  attempt  to  disturb  business  relations.  They  were  willing 
out  of  the  abundance  of  their  own  wealth  to  m<ake  gifts 
to  their  less  fortunate  fellows,  but  were  not  willing  to  yield 
any  part  of  the  control  to  those  who  wished  to  help  them- 
selves. This  motive  was  one  of  philanthropy,  in  contrast 
to  democracy.  The  product  was  "uplift"  work  in  the 
most  exact  sense  of  the  term. 

Another,  and  less  honorable,  motive  was  the  desire  to 
"  keep  the  workers  contented."  Many  a  business  man  has 
offered  his  employes  a  clubhouse,  moderate-priced  dwell- 
ings, a  bonus,  or  a  share  in  the  profits,  with  the  hope  of 
forestalling  union  organization,  a  minimum  wage  or  a 
shorter  working  day.  Not  a  few  gifts  to  charity  have  been 
part  of  an  effort  to  make  the  feudalism  of  industry  benev- 
olent and  therefore  acceptable,  but  at  the  same  time  to 
preserve  its  feudal  status.  The  ideal  of  these  pseudo- 
philanthropists  has  been  a  benevolent  despotism  as  a  means 
of  preventing  the  growth  of  democracy. 

Perhaps  the  forcing  of  charity  outside  the  ordinary  £ 
relationships  of  the  business  world  was  one  cause  of  the 
sentimentalism  which  has  been  characteristic  of  much  phil- 
anthropic work.  This  spirit  has  l>evn  particularly  niarkrd 
among  the  women  folk  of  the  bourgeoisie,  who  have  been 
even  farther  removed  from  the  vital  relations  of  the  eco- 
nomic system.  Hence  we  have  Lady  Bountiful  going 
down  with  her  basket  of  groceries  or  visiting  the  poor  in 
her  limousine.  It  is  this  sentimentalism  that  marks  the 
immediate  emotional  response  to  the  appeal  of  the  beggar. 
It  appears  in  tag-days,  Christmas  dinners  for  the  poor,  and 


88  SOCIAL  WORK 

newspaper  appeals  for  the  "  hundred  neediest  families." 
The  new  philanthropies  of  the  nineteenth  century  af- 
forded unlimited  opportunities  for  social  climbers  and 
political  opportunists.  To  be  chairman  of  some  commit- 
tee, to  have  one's  name  on  a  letter-head,  to  get  one's  picture 
in  the  daily  paper — these  have  all  too  often  been  the  pur- 
poses of  ostensibly  charitable  individuals.  For  those  who 
have  already  "  arrived  "  socially,  it  has  been  a  matter  of 
following  the  fashions  of  the  smart  set.  If  the  medieval 
folk  who  kissed  the  feet  of  lepers  were  performing  a  relig- 
ious rite,  these  nineteenth  century  sponsors  of  charity  balls 
were  performing  a  "  social  rite." 

But  after  we  have  eliminated  the  social  climbers,  the 
cheap  politicians,  the  "  sob  sisters,"  the  Ladies  Bountiful, 
the  poseurs,  and  given  recognition  to  the  truly  benevolent 
bourgeoisie,  there  remains  a  small  body  of  earnest,  honest 
democrats,  making  it  their  chief  business  to  seek  solu- 
tions for  problems  of  the  common  welfare.  In  social  work 
of  the  nineteenth  century  these  were  probably  in  the 
minority.  Perhaps  they  still  are.  For  them  social  work 
was  not  charity,  but  public  service;  not  an  interesting 
diversion  for  spare  time,  but  a  profession,  a  "  man's  job." 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Allsopp,    Henry:    An   Introduction   to   English   Industrial  History. 

London:  Bell,  1913. 
Ashley,  W.  J. :  The  Economic  Organisation  of  England.     London: 

Longmans  Green,  1914.    Lectures  7  and  8. 
Beard,  Chas. :  The  Industrial  Revolution.    London:   Swan  Sonnen- 

schein,  1901. 
Bogart,  Ernest  L. :  Economic  History  of  the  United  States.    New 

York:  Longmans  Green,  1007.     Chapters  II  and  12. 
Chapin,  F.  Stuart:  An  Historical  Introduction  to  Social  Economy. 

New  York:  Century,   1917,  Part  4. 
Engels,  Frederick:  The  Condition  of  the  Working-Class  in  England 

in  1844.    London,  1892. 


HUMANITARIANISM  89 

Gretton,  R.  H. :  The  English  Middle  Class.    London :  Bell,  1917. 
Hammond,  J.  L.,  and  Barbara:   The  Village  Labourer,  1760-1832. 

London:  Longmans  Green,  1911. 
Hayes,  Carlton,  J.  H. :  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern 

Europe.    New  York :  Macmillan,  1916,  Chap.  18.    See  also  index 

under  "  Bourgeoisie." 
MacGregor,  D.  H. :  The  Evolution  of  Industry.    Home  University 

Library,  1912. 
Ferris,    Geo.    H. :    Industrial   History   of   Modern   England.    New 

York,  1914. 
Rosenblatt,  Frank  F. :  Social  and  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Chartist 

Movement.    New  York :  Columbia  University,  1916. 
Somhart,  Werner :  Socialism  and  the  Social  Movement.    New  York : 

1898. 
Toynbee,   Arnold:    Lectures  on   the   Industrial   Revolution   of   tht 

Eighteenth   Century  in   England.    London :    Longmans    Green, 

1884. 
Veblen,  Thorstein:  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class.    New  York: 

Macmillan,  1899. 
Weber,  A.  F. :  The  Growth  of  Cities  in  the  Nineteenth  Century, 

New  York:  Columbia  University,  1899. 


CHAPTER  V 
INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK 

THE  physical  and  social  problems  which  arose  out  of 
the  Industrial  Revolution  impressed  themselves  first  upon 
the  new  manufacturers,  for  the  welfare  of  the  workers 
was  closely  bound  up  with  discipline  and  efficiency  in  the 
factory.  Very  often,  to  be  sure,  it  was  a  narrow  and  short- 
sighted interest  in  the  workers,  but  there  were  from  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  genuine  philan- 
thropists who,  not  having,  seen  the  vision  of  industrial 
democracy,  honestly  devoted  themselves  to  the  uplift  of 
their  workmen. 

At  its  best,  industrial  welfare  work  is  something  done 
by  employers  for  their  employes  because  of  a  real  humani- 
tarian interest  in  the  workmen  for  their  own  sake,  phil- 
anthropic in  spirit,  though  undemocratic  in  method.  At 
its  worst,  it  is  a  scheme  for -more  complete  control  of  the 
working  people  by  the  owners  of  industry,  a  mere  camou- 
flage for  exploitation. 

As  we  hurriedly  review  the  course  of  industrial  wel- 
fare work  in  the  nineteenth  century  we  shall  find  all  sorts 
of  variations,  but  in  general  we  shall  see  a  gradual  in- 
crease in  the  degree  of  participation  by  employes  in  the 
planning  and  administering  of  schemes  for  the  promotion 
of  their  welfare.  We  shall  find  industrial  welfare  work, 
in  the  sense  of  "  anything  for  the  comfort  and  improve- 
ment of  the  employes,  which  is  not  a  necessity  of  the 
industry  nor  required  by  law,"  giving  way  to  (i)  mana- 
gerial attention  to  safety,  health,  education,  etc.,  for  the 
frankly  avowed  purpose  of  business  success,  (2)  govern- 
90 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK  91 

mental  regulation  of  factories  and  administration  of  in- 
surance funds,  etc.,  (3)  independent  organization  of  work- 
ing people  for  self-advancement. 

EARLY   DEVELOPMENT 
GREAT  BRITAIN 

It  was  natural  that  industrial  welfare  work  should 
first  appear  in  England,  for  it  was  in  that  country  that 
the  factory  system  first  developed.  What  we  call  the 
Industrial  Revolution  of  the  late  eighteenth  and  early 
nineteenth  century  took  place  in  England  fully  fifty  years 
before  it  got  under  way  in  any  other  country.  It  is  really 
since  the  Civil  War  that  the  United  States  has  become  an 
industrial  nation. 

After  the  invention  of  the  spinning  jenny,  the  "  mule," 
the  cotton  gin,  the  steam  engine,  and  the  other  machines 
that  made  possible  large-scale  production  of  cloth,  factories 
grew  up  like  mushrooms  in  England.  The  people  swarmed 
into  the  new  industrial  towns'  more  rapidly  than  provision 
could  be  made  for  their  living  accommodations.  Hence, 
they  had  to  live  in  fearfully  crowded  quarters,  without 
sanitary  facilities  or  privacy.  Many  of  the  new  factory 
operatives  came  from  small  villages  or  the  open  country 
where  habits  of  unhygienic  and  insanitary  living  did  not 
threaten  the  lives  and  health  of  others,  as  was  bound  to 
be  the  case  in  the  crowded  towns. 

The  factories  themselves  were  thrown  up  hastily  with- 
out adequate  provision  for  light  and  air.  The  heat, 
moisture  and  dust-laden  air  occasioned  a  vast  amount  of 
sickness  and  an  unduly  high  death  rate.  Then  with  the 
division  of  labor  and  simplification  of  individual  tasks  it 
became  possible  and  profitable  to  employ  women  and 


92  SOCIAL  WORK 

young1  children  in  place  of  men.  They  were  frequently 
more  deft  with  their  fingers  and  were  willing  to  work  for 
lower  wages.  The  work  was  strenuous,  for  "  speeding- 
up  "  early  appeared  on  the  scene,  and  the  hours  were  long. 
This  meant  that  boys  and  girls  went  early  to  the  human 
"  junk  heap,"  broken  in  body,  mind  and  spirit. 

It  was  such  a  situation  as  this  that  started  Robert 
Owen  on  his  career  as  a  social  reformer.  Owen  became 
manager  and  part  owner  of  the  New  Lanark  mills  in  Scot- 
land in  1800.  Connected  with  the  mills  were  about  two 
thousand  employes,  five  hundred  of  whom  were  children 
who  had  been  brought  at  the  age  of  five  or  six  from  the 
poor-houses  and  charities  of  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow.  The 
general  condition  of  the  people  was  very  unsatisfactory. 
Theft,  drunkenness  and  other  vices  were  common;  edu- 
cation and  sanitation  were  alike  neglected;  and  most 
families  lived  in  a  single  room. 

Owen's  first  efforts  were  directed  toward  improving 
the  houses,  opening  a  store  where  goods  of  sound  quality 
could  be  purchased  at  a  little  more  than  cost,  supervising 
the  sale  of  liquor,  and  teaching  habits  of  thrift,  cleanliness 
and  order.  He  also  opened  schools  for  the  young  children. 
Though  at  first  regarded  with  suspicion  by  the  work 
people,  Owen  presently  won  their  confidence.  But  it  was 
his  business  associates  who  interfered  most  with  the  plans. 
Although  the  mills  prospered  financially,  the  partners  were 
displeased  with  the  expenditures  on  behalf  of  the  em- 
ployes, and  entered  much  complaint. 

Wearied  at  last  by  their  restrictions,  Owen  formed  a 
new  company  in  1813.  The  members  of  the  firm  were 
content  with  a  return  of  five  per  cent,  on  their  capital  and 
were  ready  to  give  special  attention  to  the  welfare  of  their 
workmen.  Under  this  regime  New  Lanark  became  widely 
known,  and  was  much  visited  by  social  reformers  and 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK  93 

statesmen.  According  to  the  testimony  of  all,  the  results 
were  most  gratifying. 

It  would  be  quite  impossible  to  trace  in  detail  the  growth 
of  this  idea.  Instead,  we  shall  cite  a  few  instances  and 
show  the  character  of  the  welfare  work  undertaken  by 
different  corporations. 

The  reports  of  the  factory  inspectors  for  1845  tell  of 
a  corporation  described  as  the  "  N.S.M.  Co.,"  which  em- 
ployed 854  persons.  Each  employe  receiving  more  than 
45.  per  week  contributed  id.  which  was  used  to  pay  a 
surgeon  who  visited  the  factory  daily  and  also  attended 
the  sick  in  their  homes.  Two  hundred  factory  children 
and  children  of  employes  attended  school  daily,  and  40  to 
50  attended  night  school.  In  addition,  there  was  religious 
instruction,  a  library  of  300  volumes,  a  brass  band,  a 
savings  bank  and  a  fire  brigade.  All  who  "  give  satisfac- 
tory proof  of  being  in  the  habit  of  attending  some  place  of 
instruction,  or  of  public  worship  on  the  Sunday,"  received 
free  tickets  for  an  annual  picnic. 

The  "  Quarterly  Review  "  for  December,  1852,  de- 
scribes the  welfare  work  undertaken  by  another  company 
whose  managing  director  "  thought  it  possible,  without 

loss  or  hurt  to  the  texture to  humanise  and 

Christianise  the  hands."  A  school  was  opened  in  1848, 
later  there  were  tea-parties,  cricket,  gardening,  excursions 
and  religious  instruction.  In  1852  a  chaplain  was  ap- 
pointed to  take  charge  of  these  varied  activities. 

Another  company  is  described  in  the  words  of  one  of 
its  members  as  beginning  its  welfare  work  after  the  fol- 
lowing fashion :  "  My  Grandmother,  too,  is  said  by  many 
of  the  Workpeople  to  have  been  very  sympathetic  with 
them  in  times  of  trouble  or  illness.  She  managed  a  Goth- 
ing  Club  for  them,  and  added  a  bonus  to  the  money  they 
paid  in."  This  company  organized  a  reading  dub  in  1850, 


94  SOCIAL  WORK 

established  a  small  library,  organized  a  school  for  the  chil- 
dren, arranged  outings,  started  a  brass  band,  singing  class, 
"  pantomimes,"  and  fairs,  annual  teas,  and  made  Christ- 
mas gifts.  In  1855  a  man  was  appointed  "  partly  to  look 
after  the  welfare  of  the  workmen  and  their  families."  A 
doctor  and  nurse  were  introduced  in  1868.  In  1874  a 
woman  was  added  to  the  staff  to  work  among  the  girls 
and  women. 

THE  UNITED  STATES 

As  we  have  already  indicated,  employers'  welfare  work 
appeared  somewhat  later  in  the  United  States  than  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  One  of  the  earliest  activities  of  this 
sort  was  the  provision  of  suitable  housing  facilities.  Very 
often  there  were  no  houses  at  all  on  the  site  of  a  proposed 
establishment  and  something  had  to  be  done.  In  other 
cases  the  dwellings  were  insufficient  in  number  or  unsatis- 
factory in  character. 

One  of  the  first  American  firms  to  undertake  the  hous- 
ing of  its  employes  seems  to  have  been  the  Peacedale 
Manufacturing  Company  of  Rhode  Island.  It  erected  in 
1848  a  number  of  seven-  and  eight-room  cottages  and  sev- 
eral two-  and  three-family  dwellings  with  three  to  eight 
rooms  for  each  family.  These  were  plain,  well-built,  com- 
fortable and  kept  in  good  repair.  The  rent  was  very 
modest,  being  as  recently  as  1907  only  $3.50  to  $12.50 
per  month. 

The  Waltham  Watch  Company  early  constructed 
houses  to  rent  or  sell  to  its  employes.  In  1865  it  estab- 
lished a  boarding  house,  known  as  "  Adams  Hall,"  for 
female  employes.  This  is  still  in  use.  It  has  double  rooms 
furnished  with  double  bed,  table,  washstand,  chest  of 
drawers  and  three  chairs. 

In  1890  the  N.  O.  Nelson  Company  founded  the  village 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK  95 

of  Leclaire  near  St.  Louis.  Employes  were  encouraged, 
but  not  compelled,  to  purchase  homes  here.  Lots  were 
sold  at  $2  to  $2.50  a  front  foot,  and  6  per  cent,  interest 
was  charged.  The  houses  were  built  on  plans  mutually 
agreed  upon,  the  employe  being  charged  for  raw  material, 
labor  and  the  "  average  profit  "  of  the  company.  Monthly 
payments  were  from  $12  to  $20.  Five  dollars  per  year 
was  charged  for  water,  and  twenty-five  cents  per  month 
for  electric  lights. 

"  The  winding  cinder  roads,  bordered  with  spreading 
shade  trees,  the  groups  of  ornamental  shrubbery  and  plants 
and  the  carefully  cultivated  flower  beds  in  and  about  the 
factory  grounds  and  parks  give  the  place  an  attractiveness 
rarely  to  be  found  in  a  manufacturing  community.  Em- 
ployes may  here  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  city  with  the 
freedom  and  economy  of  country  life.  All  who  wish  can 
keep  their  own  poultry  and  cow,  grow  their  own  vegetables 
and  fruits  and  yet  live  within  easy  reach  of  their  place 
of  employment." 

In  1878  the  Ludlow  Manufacturing  Associates  of 
Massachusetts  began  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  education 
of  the  children  of  their  employes.  The  village  had  a  one- 
room,  ungraded  school,  but  the  increased  number  of  oper- 
atives compelled  the  addition  of  two  teachers,  whose 
classes  met  in  the  vestry  of  the  church.  The  company 
then  built  a  schoolhouse  with  six  class-rooms,  a  lecture  hall 
and  parlor,  which  it  rented  to  the  town  at  the  nominal 
figure  of  $100  per  year.  There  was  considerable  friction 
between  the  town  and  the  company  about  the  management 
of  the  school,  but  the  arrangement  was  continued  until 
about  1905.  Later,  the  Associates  started  the  Ludlow 
Textile  School  to  train  apprentices.  Each  boy  spent  five 
hours  each  day  in  the  mill.  One  class  went  to  school  in  the 
morning,  the  other  in  the  afternoon.  The  company  also 


96  SOCIAL  WORK 

arranged  three  months'  courses  in  cooking  for  the  women 
and  girls.  In  1878  it  started  a  library,  and  in  1888  erected 
a  special  building  to  house  it.  In  this  same  year  it  fur- 
nished a  room  and  paid  the  salary  of  a  treasurer  for  a 
savings  bank. 

The  first  instance  we  have  found  recorded  of  recrea- 
tion provided  by  employers  is  that  of  the  Conant  Thread 
Company,  of  Rhode  Island,  which  furnished  transporta- 
tion one  day  in  1870  for  its  employes  to  a  shore  resort  on 
Narragansett  Bay.  No  wages  were  paid  for  this  day,  and 
the  employes  were  not  consulted  as  to  the  nature  or  the 
place  of  the  excursion. 

The  Ludlow  Associates,  mentioned  above,  in  1878  fit- 
ted up  a  game  and  smoking  room.  But  it  became  so 
disorderly  that  it  was  soon  closed.  In  1895  a  new  attempt 
was  much  more  successful.  In  this  case,  the  employes 
were  given  an  active  share  in  the  planning  and  adminis- 
tration. A  men's  dub  was  organized.  In  1898  a  building 
was  provided  and  furnished  with  bowling  alleys,  pool 
tables,  etc.  Later  an  athletic  field  was  added  to 
the  equipment. 

The  Illinois  Steel  Company,  in  1889,  opened  at  Joliet 
the  "  Steel  Works  Club  "  for  the  benefit  of  its  employes. 
Any  workman  in  the  plant  was  eligible  to  membership  upon 
payment  of  the  annual  dues  of  $2.00.  The  building  was 
leased  to  the  club  at  the  nominal  rental  of  $1.00  per  year. 
It  has  a  reading  room,  billiard  room,  gymnasium,  bowl- 
ing alleys,  hand-ball  court,  tennis  court,  etc. 

In  addition  to  housing,  education  and  recreation,  in- 
dustrial welfare  work  early  included  a  miscellaneous  lot  of 
activities,  some  of  which  have  already  been  suggested.  At 
Peacedale,  R.  I.,  in  1854,  one  of  the  mill  owners  and  his 
wife  taught  children  singing  on  week-days  and  Bible  on 
Sundays.  In  1856  the  company  set  aside  a  building  with 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK  97 

library,  reading  room  and  hall.    In  1891  it  put  up  a  new 
building  with  gymnasium,  club  rooms,  hall,  library,  etc. 

In  1886  the  Solvay  Process  Company  started  a  sewing 
class  for  girls.  Later,  it  erected  a  guild  house,  which  had 
an  assembly  hall  for  concerts,  entertainments  and  lectures, 
billiard  and  pool  rooms,  class  rooms,  library  and  kitchen. 
The  company  also  built  a  club  house  for  use  of  the  office 
force,  and  laid  out  an  athletic  field. 

PRESENT  SCOPE  OF  INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK 

In  1919  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
reported  the  results  of  its  investigation  of  over  400  estab- 
lishments which  had  welfare  departments.  Three  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  of  these  had  some  provision  for 
medical  treatment.  Some  had  first-aid  equipment  only, 
others  had  hospital  or  emergency  rooms,  about  one-third 
had  a  doctor  and  an  equal  number  a  nurse.  In  some  cases, 
definite  instruction  was  being  given  in  first-aid.  One  very 
large  firm  received  reports  every  twelve  days  about 
absences.  These  were  then  followed  up  in  order  that  the 
needed  medical  attention  or  other  service  might  be  ren- 
dered. Physical  examinations  at  the  time  of  employment 
and  periodically  thereafter  were  found  in  numerous  plants. 

These  health  measures  have  on  the  whole  redounded  to 
the  benefit  of  the  employes  and  the  credit  of  their  em- 
ployers. But  it  is  only  fair  to  remember  that  the  company 
doctor  and  the  company  hospital  are  frequently  devices  for 
defeating  workmen's  compensation  laws  and  industrial 
accident  insurance.  Moreover,  they  are  not  always  above 
suspicion  as  actual  sources  of  income,  because  of  the  medi- 
cal fees  which  are  charged. 

The  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  also  classes  under  the 
head  of  welfare  work,  the  provision  of  drinking  water 
7 


98  SOCIAL  WORK 

systems,  wash-rooms,  lockers,  hot  water,  soap  and  towels, 
lunch  room,  milk  stations,  etc. 

Over  two  hundred  establishments  were  reported  as 
providing  rest  and  recreation  rooms.  Over  one  hundred 
had  club  houses,  or  at  least  club  rooms.  These  were  vari- 
ously equipped  with  gymnasia,  game  rooms,  athletic 
grounds,  bowling  alleys,  pool  and  billiard  tables,  swim- 
ming pools,  musical  instruments,  moving  pictures,  etc.  A 
few  firms  had  country  clubs  and  camps  where  employes 
might  spend  week-ends  and  vacations  at  a  minimum  of 
expense.  Roof  gardens  and  recreation  parks  were 
found  occasionally. 

The  educational  opportunities  provided  by  employers 
took  the  forms  of  libraries,  reading  rooms,  classes  and 
lectures.  One  hundred  establishments  were  found  by  the 
Bureau  to  have  libraries,  with  space,  books  and  attendants 
provided  by  the  firms.  These  were  in  addition  to  the 
purely  technical  libraries  which  were  used  almost  ex- 
clusively for  reference  purposes  as  a  part  of  the  business. 
Technical  schools,  continuation  schools,  English  for 
foreigners,  and  all  sorts  of  evening  classes  were  found. 

"One  company  with  about  14,000  employes  main- 
tains, with  the  cooperation  of  the  local  school  board,  a 
technical  night  school  for  its  employes,  in  which  about 
looo  students  are  enrolled.  There  are  several  depart- 
ments. In  the  foreign  department,  classes  are  held  in 
arithmetic,  and  also  in  the  reading,  speaking  and  writing 
of  English.  The  prqraratory  department  has  classes  in 
mental  arithmetic,  shop  problems,  composition,  commercial 
geography  and  mechanical  drawing.  In  the  engineering 
department,  instruction  is  given  in  theoretical  and  applied 
electricity,  pattern,  foundry  and  machine  shop  practise, 
sciences,  higher  mathematics,  etc.  There  is  also  a  woman's 
department,  giving  a  commercial  course,  domestic  science, 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK  99 

and  music.  A  moderate  tuition  fee  is  charged ;  the  high- 
school  building  is  used,  and  the  costs  above  the  tuition  paid 
by  students  are  met  by  the  company  and  the  school  district, 
the  former  paying  about  three-fourths  of  the  deficit." 

Not  merely  the  employes  themselves,  but  their  fami- 
lies as  well,  are  frequently  included  within  the  scope  of 
industrial  welfare  work.  The  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
found  1 58  firms  "  doing  more  or  less  social  betterment 
work  among  their  employes'  families,  generally  along  the 
following  lines:  (i)  Improving  the  dwellings  and  the 
streets,  installing  sewerage,  lighting  and  water  systems, 
and  assisting  in  gardening.  (2)  Providing  educational  and 
recreational  facilities.  (3)  Introducing  into  the  com- 
munity a  nurse  or  other  capable  visitor  to  advise  in  the 
care  of  the  sick  and  the  children,  to  instruct  in  American 
methods  of  home-making,  to  develop  the  community  spirit 
by  organizing  and  fostering  clubs,  and  to  be  the  sympa- 
thetic friend  in  time  of  trouble." 

Other  forms  of  welfare  work  include  disability  funds, 
group  insurance  and  pensions.  Eighty  establishments 
were  found  by  the  Bureau  to  have  benefit  associations,  to 
which  the  firms  made  substantial  contributions.  In  the 
majority,  the  employes  were  found  to  have  at  least  a  part 
in  the  management.  In  some,  membership  was  a  condi- 
tion of  employment,  but  the  majority  were  voluntary,  in 
theory  at  least.  In  nearly  all  cases  membership  was  for- 
feited on  leaving  the  employ  of  the  company. 

"  The  establishment  of  a  definite  pension  system  has 
been  a  comparatively  recent  manifestation  among  em- 
ployers of  the  belief  that  the  worker  has  a  just  claim  on 
those  for  whom  he  works  for  some  provision  for  his  de- 
clining years.  It  is  probably  true,  however,  that  while  the 
majority  of  the  plans  state  that  the  pensions  are  granted 
for  '  loyal  and  efficient '  service,  still  the  fact  that  the  pro- 


ioo  SOCIAL  WORK 

vision  of  these  funds  tends  toward  a  more  stable  force, 
toward  keeping  the  services  of  the  more  experienced  and 
skilful  workmen  who  might  be  able  to  command  higher 
wages  elsewhere,  and  toward  moderating  industrial  unrest 
generally,  has  its  weight  also  in  determining  firms  or  cor- 
porations to  establish  such  funds."  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  in  contrast  to  this  moderate  statement  of  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics,  a  member  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court  described  these  pensions  as  "  the 
new  peonage." 

The  very  essence  of  employers'  welfare  work  is  con- 
tained in  the  definition  used  by  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Sta- 
tistics, viz.,  "  Anything  for  the  comfort  and  improvement, 
intellectual  or  social,  of  the  employes,  over  and  above 
wages  paid,  which  is  not  a  necessity  of  the  industry  nor  re- 
quired by  law."  In  other  words,  it  is  regarded  essentially 
as  a  gratuity.  It  represents  patronage  rather  than  coopera- 
tion and  benevolence  rather  than  justice.  However,  so 
long  as  industry  is  continued  on  a  feudal  basis  and  legis- 
lation is  inadequate,  this  humanitarianism  of  the  employ- 
ers must  be  regarded  as  praiseworthy,  unless,  of  course, 
it  be  used  as  a  means  of  exploitation. 

The  opinions  of  working  men  in  regard  to  welfare 
work  are  divided  as  is  evident  from  the  following  state- 
ments of  two  labor  leaders,  Samuel  Gompers  and  John 
P.  Frey. 

The  opinion  of  Samuel  Gompers  is  this :  "  It  should 
be  clearly  understood  that  an  employer  who  employs  num- 
bers of  workers  in  his  establishments  places  them  under 
an  organization  where  they  individually  have  no  control 
over  environment,  and  are  unable  to  furnish  for  them- 
selves even  the  most  necessary  things,  such  as  water, 
toilet  provisions,  and  things  of  like  nature.  Any  person 
who  is  in  any  degree  responsible  for  the  well-being  of 
human  beings,  cannot  with  good  conscience  disregard  the 


INDUSTRIAL  WELFARE  WORK  101 

obligation.  If  he  has  intelligent  imagination  and  foresight 
he  will  refuse  to  poison  the  bodies  and  lungs  of  the 
workers,  or  to  permit  them  to  render  their  product  unfit 
for  consumption,  to  ruin  their  eyesight  or  to  mutilate  their 
bodies.  He  will  do  these  things  to  satisfy  his  own  sense  of 
decency  and  justice,  and  anything  less  would  do  violence 
to  his  conscience  and  cause  him  discomfort.  Such  deeds 
are  not  favors,  but  only  a  decent  respect  for  humanity. 
The  spurious  kind  of  welfare  work,  intended  only  to  rob 
the  workers  of  independence  of  action  and  of  just  com- 
pensation, has  met  with  deserved  discredit  and  disrepute. 
Justice,  not  charity,  is  the  right  of  all  the  workers.  Let 
welfare  work  become  what  it  should  be — conscience  work." 

According  to  John  P.  Frey :  "  Welfare  work  chloro- 
forms the  worker  and  gets  the  better  of  him.  The  union- 
ists want  to  help  themselves.  They  do  not  want  to  be  the 
objects  of  patronage.  It  is  a  noticeable  thing  that  welfare 
work  stops  when  shops  become  unionized.  Shops  which 
give  turkeys  at  Thanksgiving  stop  giving  turkeys  after 
the  men  form  unions,  but  the  men  can  buy  turkeys  several 
times  a  year,  if  they  care  to  do  so,  with  the  increase  in 
wages.  This  seems  to  be  evidence  that  welfare  work  is 
used  to  keep  the  men  from  organizing." 

Thus  it  is  clear  that  as  bourgeois  benevolence  indus- 
trial welfare  work  has  definite  limitations.  But  it  involves 
many  activities  that  in  themselves  are  desirable  and  in  no 
wise  incompatible  with  self-respect  and  democracy.  Sup- 
pose there  were  an  industrial  democracy  in  the  best  sense, 
there  would  still  be  need  for  attention  to  health,  safety, 
education,  recreation,  thrift,  etc.  Only  under  these  condi- 
tions the  administration  of  the  welfare  work  would  become 
a  specialized  service  rendered  to  the  group  at  its  own  re- 
quest and  paid  for  by  the  group.  The  democratic  move- 
ment which  is  unquestionably  under  way  leaves  little  room 


102  SOCIAL  WORK 

for  philanthropy,   but  makes  a  large  place   for  profes- 
sional service. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Bloomfield,  Daniel:  Selected  Articles  on  Employment  Management. 

New  York:  Wilson,  1919,  especially  pp.  435-483. 
Bloomfield,    Meyer:    Management  and  Men.     London:    Unwin,    T. 

Fisher,  1919. 
Brandeis,  Louis  D.  :  Business  —  A  Profession.    Boston:  Small  May- 

nard,  1914,  especially  pp.  65-81. 
Cadbury,   Edward:    Experiments  in   Industrial   Organisation.     New 

York:  Longmans  Green,  1912. 

Feld,  R.  C.  :  Humanizing  Industry.    New  York  :  Dutton,  1919. 
Frankel,  Lee  K.  and  Fleisher,  Alex.  :  The  Human  Factor  in  Industry. 

New  York:  Macmillan,  1920. 
Oilman,  N.  P.  :  A  Dividend  to  Labor.    A  Study  of  Employers'  Wel- 

fare Institutions.    Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin,  1899. 
Henderson,  Chas.  R.:  Citizens  in  Industry.    New  York:  Appleton, 


Kellor,  Francis  A.  :  "  Industrial  Americanization  and  National  De- 

fense."   North  American  Review,  May,  1917. 
Meakin,    Budgett:    Model    Factories    and    Villages.     Philadelphia: 

Jacobs,  1905. 
Proud,  Emily  Dorothea  :  Welfare  Work.    London  :  G.  Bell  &  Sons, 

1916. 
Tarbell,  Ida  M.  :  New  Ideals  in  Business.    New  York:  Macmillan, 

1916. 
Tead,  Ordway  and  Metcalf,  H.  C  :  Personnel  Administration.    New 

York  :  McGraw  Hill,  1920. 

Tolman,  Wm.  H.  :  Social  Engineering.    New  York:  McGraw,  1909. 
U.   S.   Bureau   of   Labor   Statistics.     Bulletin   No.    250.    "  Welfare 

Work  for  Employees  in  Industrial  Establishments  in  the  United 

States,"  1919. 
Ibid.:    Bui.    No.   222,    1917,   "  Welfare    Work   in   British   Munition 

Factories." 
Ibid.:  Monthly  Review,  vol.  5,  (1917)   No.  4,  pp.  154-6;  No.  5,  pp. 

201-212;  No.  6,  pp.  207-215;  vol.  6,  (1918)   No.  i,  pp.  195-205; 

No.  3,  PP-  199-206. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION   MOVEMENT 

WE  have  seen  how  employers'  welfare  work  arose  out 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution,  and  how  in  response  to  the 
democratic  movement  it  is  giving  way  to  other  activities. 
In  place  of  "uplift"  work  performed  by  employers  for 
their  employes,  we  are  finding  three  lines  of  effort  that 
redound  to  the  advantage  of  people  who  work  for  wages : 
(i)  service  departments  which  attend  to  health,  for  ex- 
ample, as  a  part  of  the  business,  without  pretense  of  phil- 
anthropy, (2)  public  regulation  of  working  conditions 
and  administration  of  insurance  funds,  (3)  organization 
of  working  people  to  solve  their  own  problems. 

Similarly  we  shall  find  the  charity  organization  move- 
ment arising  out  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  and 
gradually  giving  way  before  the  growing  impetus  of  dem- 
ocracy. In  this  instance,  however,  we  are  dealing  with  a 
"  second  growth."  The  first  response  of  philanthropists 
who  were  unwilling  to  leave  the  care  of  the  needy  to  pub- 
lic relief  or  ecclesiastical  charities  was  a  host  of  small, 
uncorrelated  societies.  The  resultant  chaos  with  its  alter- 
nating neglect  and  overindulgence  set  the  stage  for  the 
charity  organization  movement.  We  have  already  seen 
how  the  twentieth  century  is  displacing  charity  organiza- 
tion societies  with  family  welfare  associations  on  the  one 
hand  and  community  councils  on  the  other. 

THE  HAMBURG-ELBERFELD  SYSTEM 

The  sort  of  thing  that  we  have  come  to  recognize  as 
the  charity  organization  movement  seems  to  have  begun  in 
Germany  and  in  England  at  about  the  same  time.  More- 

103 


io4  SOCIAL  WORK 

over,  it  appears  that  the  German  and  English  pioneers  in 
this  field  were  in  contact  with  each  other  and  exchanged 
numerous  ideas.  The  German  development  is  ordinarily 
traced  to  the  reorganization  of  relief  work  in  the  city  of 
Hamburg  in  1788.  The  plan  which  was  there  put  into 
effect  was  adopted  with  some  modifications  at  Elberfeld, 
in  1852. 

The  plan  of  organization  involved  the  division  of  the 
city  into  "  quarters,"  each  of  which  was  supposed  to  con- 
tain not  more  than  four  dependent  individuals  or  heads  of 
families.  Each  quarter  was  placed  under  the  supervision 
of  a  visitor,  known  as  the  Armenpfleger,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  visit  the  poor  of  his  quarter  at  regular  intervals,  keep 
himself  informed  as  to  their  circumstances,  and  use  his 
influence  to  improve  their  manner  of  living.  The  quarters 
were  grouped  into  districts,  at  the  head  of  each  of  which 
there  was  a  superintendent,  or  Vorsteher.  His  duties  were 
to  direct  the  work  of  the  various  quarters  in  his  district. 
He  was  to  arrange  meetings  of  his  visitors  for  the  purpose 
of  discussing  the  work  and  deciding  upon  the  amount, 
kind  and  duration  of  aid  to  be  given.  Over  all  the  dis- 
tricts there  was  a  central  administrative  board,  or 
Hauptverwaltung,  composed  of  a  special  municipal  officer 
and  certain  members  of  the  city  council.  The  duties  of  this 
central  board  were  to  supervise  the  relief  work  of  the 
entire  city,  make  regulations,  review  decisions  of  the 
districts,  and  to  supervise  institutional  relief.  They  were 
also  supposed  to  devote  some  time  to  studying  the  causes 
of  poverty. 

With  the  exception  of  the  chairman  of  the  central 
board,  all  the  offices  were  filled  by  citizens  who  served 
without  pay.  The  voluntary  visitors  were  given  a  voice 
in  the  decisions  as  to  what  should  be  done  for  their  fam- 
ilies ;  and  the  actions  of  the  districts,  while  reviewed  by  the 


CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT      105 

general  board,  were  not  dependent  on  its  approval   for 
their  validity. 

The  principal  advantage  of  this  system  was  that  each 
dependent  person  or  family  had  fairly  intimate  relations 
with  the  visitor  in  whose  quarter  he  lived.  But  there  was  a 
corresponding  disadvantage  that  a  given  case  had  to  re- 
main continuously  under  the  same  visitor,  even  though 
these  relations  might  become  strained,  and  though  the 
visitor  might  be  incompetent  to  handle  the  problems  of  the 
family  in  question. 

Moreover,  it  presently  came  about  that  certain  quar- 
ters, indeed,  certain  single  houses  contained  a  considerable 
number  of  needy  families.  Some  visitors  were  responsible 
for  tenement  houses  containing  from  fifty  to  sixty  de- 
pendents. Because  of  this  fact,  when  the  so-called  Ham- 
burg-Elberfeld  system  was  reorganized  in  the  last  decade 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  "  quarters  "  gave  way  to  a 
district  system. 

Under  this  new  scheme,  the  territorial  units  were 
larger,  and  any  visitor  assigned  to  the  district  might  be 
given  the  duty  of  investigating  or  supervising  any  family 
within  that  part  of  the  city.  Every  applicant  for  aid  was 
required  to  present  himself  to  the  district  superintendent, 
who  referred  him  to  one  of  the  visitors.  This  made  it  pos- 
sible to  guard  against  overburdening  particular  workers 
and  also  to  change  visitors  in  case  some  good  reason 
should  arise. 

The  idea  of  individualization  was  pretty  clearly 
developed  by  the  administrators  of  this  scheme  of  relief. 
Individualization  to  them  had  reference  both  to  investiga- 
tion and  to  treatment.  But  apparently,  it  was  the  investi- 
gational  side  of  the  work  that  was  most  emphasised.  Cer- 
tainly, it  was  this  that  particularly  impressed  some  of  the 
English  students  and  Poor  Law  officials  who  looked  into 


io6  SOCIAL  WORK 

the  German  system.  This  is  made  clear  by  the  following 
paragraph  from  a  pamphlet  written  by  one  of  the  English 
Poor  Law  inspectors  fifty  years  ago:  "  In  the  first  place, 
the  applicant  for  relief  is  subjected  to  an  examination  so 
close  and  searching,  so  absolutely  inquisitorial,  that  no  man 
who  could  possibly  escape  from  it  would  submit  to  it.  He 
is  not  one  of  several  hundreds  who  can  tell  his  own  story 
to  an  overworked  relieving  officer,  but  one  of  a  very  few, 
never  exceeding  four — frequently  the  single  applicant — 
who  is  bound  by  law  to  answer  every  one  of  that  long  string 
of  questions  that  his  interrogator  is  bound  by  law  to  put 
to  him.  One  of  the  peculiar  merits  claimed,  and  I  believe 
rightly  claimed,  for  this  system  is  that  before  a  man 
can  obtain  relief  it  must  be  shown  that  he  cannot  exist 
without  it." 

This  indicates  what  was  probably  true  both  in  Germany 
and  in  England,  that  very  little  attention  was  given  to  any 
except  the  economic  aspects  of  a  family's  life,  and  that 
investigation  looked  to  the  repression  of  unnecessary 
demands  for1  assistance  rather  than  to  the  building  up  of 
the  physical  and  moral  resources  of  the  family. 

THE  LONDON    CHARITY    ORGANIZATION    SOCIETY 

The  first  charity  organization  society  to  bear  that  name 
was  founded  in  London  in  1869.  Back  of  it  there  lay  just 
the  sort  of  circumstances  that  we  have  already  described. 
The  Poor  Law  administered  rigidly  in  some  communities 
and  laxly  in  others  failed  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  very  large 
number  of  people.  In  spite  of  the  "  workhouse  test " 
(which  we  shall  study  more  fully  in  a  later  chapter)  and 
possibly  because  of  it,  there  were  thousands  of  beggars 
in  the  English  cities.  Their  existence  meant,  of  course, 
that  there  was  a  vast  amount  of  indiscriminate  almsgiving 
by  charitable  individuals  and  by  philanthropic  societies. 
These  various  organizations  and  individuals  worked  quite 


CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT      107 

independently  of  one  another,  with  the  result  that  there 
was  an  enormous  amount  of  overlapping  on  the  one  hand, 
and  neglect  on  the  other.  Astute  beggars  were  receiving 
assistance  from  several  different  sources,  while  more 
modest  and  perhaps  more  needy  people  were  overlooked 
by  all  the  charities.  We  are  told  of  various  free  refuges, 
of  suppers,  relief  associations,  coal  and  bread  clubs,  soup 
kitchens,  visiting  and  Bible  societies,  and  many  others. 

One  of  those  who  appreciated  this  situation  was  the 
Rev.  Henry  Solly,  a  Unitarian  minister,  who  in  1868  read 
before  the  Society  of  Arts  a  paper  entitled,  "  How  to  deal 
with  the  unemployed  poor  in  London  and  with  its  roughs 
and  criminal  classes."  The  reading  of  this  paper  seems  to 
have  produced  quite  a  stir,  and  resulted  almost  immedi- 
ately in  the  formation  of  a  committee  which  called  itself, 
at  first,  the  "  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Pauperism  and 
Crime."  It  issued  a  series  of  prospectuses,  which  out- 
lined a  number  of  plans  for  dealing  with  the  problems  of 
poverty  in  London.  Somewhat  later  in  the  same  year,  a 
Doctor  Hawksley  proposed  a  scheme  for  organizing  all 
the  charities  and  administering  them  through  district 
offices.  These  were  to  be  in  constant  touch  with  each 
other  and  under  the  general  direction  of  a  central  office. 
This  overhead  administration  was  to  be  financed  by  a  tax 
of  one  per  cent,  of  their  annual  incomes,  to  be  paid  by  all 
the  charities  into  a  common  fund.  Following  this  sug- 
gestion, a  conference  was  called  to  which  all  the  charities 
of  London  were  invited  to  send  representatives.  It  seems 
that  a  good  many  of  them  responded,  but  did  not  consent 
readily  to  the  plan  of  centralization.  However,  a  start  was 
made  in  1869  under  the  title  of  the  "  Society  for  Organ- 
izing Charitable  Relief  and  Repressing  Mendicity."  This 
was  changed  in  1870  to  the  "Charity  Organization 
Society." 

At  the  outset  the  secretaries  of  the  society  gave  their 


io8  SOCIAL  WORK 

services  without  compensation,  as  did  the  members  of  the 
district  committees.  But  after  a  time,  the  volume  of  work 
was  found  to  be  so  great  that  the  full  time  of  paid  secre- 
taries was  essential.  One  of  the  early  general  secretaries 
was  Charles  S.  Loch,  who  served  the  society  for  some 
forty  years.  However,  the  work  in  the  districts  continued 
to  be  done  for  some  time  by  volunteers.  A  few  of  the  dis- 
trict committees  had  experienced  members,  such  as  Miss 
Octavia  Hill,  but, the  most  of  them  apparently  did  not. 

The  original  idea  of  the  society  does  not  seem  to  have 
involved  the  giving  of  relief,  but  rather  the  correlation  of 
existing  charities.  It  was  thought  that  the  central  organ- 
ization might  subsidize  some  of  the  constituent  societies, 
but  it  was  not  long  before  the  direct  giving  of  relief  was 
made  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  charity  organization  society. 
In  addition  to  bringing  the  many  independent  organiza- 
tions together,  the  charity  organization  society  was  looked 
to  as  an  example  which  should  educate  the  other  organiza- 
tions, showing  them;  how  to  do  their  work  most  effectively. 
Also,  it  undertook  to  bring  about  a  central  registration  of 
all  persons  receiving  assistance  from  any  of  the  charities. 
The  purpose  was  not  merely  the  elimination  of  fraud,  but 
the  making  possible  of  a  coherent  plan  of  treatment 
by  guarding  against  overlapping  and  working  at 
cross  purposes. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  German  reformers,  the  early  mem- 
bers of  the  London  Charity  Organization  Society  sought 
to  bring  about  thorough  investigation  of  all  applicants  for 
aid  and  systematic  visitation  of  poor  families.  The  Ger- 
mans undertook  to  accomplish  this  by  compelling  citizens 
to  give  their  services  without  pay  to  the  administration 
of  municipal  relief.  In  England  it  was  a  private  agency, 
the  London  Charity  Organization  Society,  which  made 

earnest  appeals   for  volunteer  visitors  who  should  not 

\ 


CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT      109 

merely  learn  the  facts  that  needed  to  be  known  about  appli- 
cants for  relief,  but  also  follow  them  up  with  supervision 
and  advice,  which  it  was  hoped  might  serve  to  put  the 
families  on  their  own  feet. 

SPREAD  OF  THE  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA 

The  general  situation  which  gave  rise  to  the  Hamburg- 
Elberfeld  system  in  Germany  and  the  first  Charity 
Organization  Society  in  England  was  responsible  for  a 
similar  movement  in  the  United  States.  About  the  middle 
of  the  last  century,  there  were  organized  in  most  of  our 
large  cities  relief  societies  which  bore  some  such  title  as 
"  Society  for  the  Improvement  of  the  Condition  of  the 
Poor."  It  was  their  express  purpose  to  find  work  for  all 
who  were  willing  to  accept  it,  to  investigate  all  cases  thor- 
oughly, and  to  bring  the  needy  to  a  point  where  they  would 
no  longer  require  assistance.  But  being  dispensers  of 
material  aid,  they  soon,  as  one  writer  puts  it,  "  sank  into 
the  sea  of  almsgiving."  As  early  as  the  year  1840,  there 
were  over  thirty  relief  societies  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

An  informally  constituted  committee  in  1843  made  a 
report  somewhat  to  the  following  effect :  ( I )  that  the  want 
of  discrimination  in  giving  relief  was  a  fundamental  and 
very  prevalent  defect  in  most  of  these  schemes  of  charity; 
(2)  that  the  societies  were  acting  independently  of  each 
other,  with  the  result  that  artful  mendicants  were  receiving 
assistance  from  many  of  the  societies  at  the  same  time, 
while  the  better  class  of  the  needy  were  frequently  going 
unaided;  (3)  that  there  was  not  adequate  provision  for 
personal  relations  between  those  who  gave  and  those  who 
received  the  alms,  as  a  consequence  of  which,  the  societies 
failed  to  provide  for  the  permanent  physical  and  moral 
improvement  of  those  whom  they  relieved;  (4)  that  it  was 
apparent  that  no  form  of  charity  which  did  not  have  special 


no  SOCIAL  WORK 

reference  to  the  removal  of  the  causes  of  pauperism  could 
fail  to  increase  its  amount. 

Thus  there  was  a  situation  in  America  which  was 
almost  identical  with  that  which  in  England  called  the 
charity  organization  movement  into  being.  But  there  were 
two  other  factors  which  affected  its  beginnings  in  this 
country.  One  was  the  industrial  depression  which  fol- 
lowed the  commercial  crisis  of  1873  and  which  threw 
multitudes  out  of  work.  The  other  was  the  coming  to 
America  of  some  English  clergymen  who  had  been  active 
in  the  London  Charity  Organization  Society.  The  forma- 
tion of  the  early  societies  in  the  United  States  is  so  well 
described  in  the  report  of  a  committee  of  the  National 
Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction  in  1893  that  we 
shall  borrow  rather  liberally  from  it- 

"  In  1874  Rev.  Charles  G.  Ames  led  in  the  formation, 
upon  London  models,  in  Germantown,  a  suburban  ward 
of  Philadelphia,  of  an  association  which  employed  house- 
hold visitors  to  investigate  applicants  for  aid,  availed 
itself  of  the  soup-house,  fuel  societies,  churches,  and 
especially  of  the  outdoor  municipal  relief  in  procuring  the 
requisite  assistance,  and  supplemented  it  as  need  indicated 
from  its  own  resources." 

In  the  autumn  of  1875  tne  Cooperative  Society  of 
Visitors  Among  the  Poor  was  formed  in  Boston,  its  plan 
being  a  modification  of  the  Elberfeld  system.  But  Buffalo 
"  has  the  honor  of  being  the  first  city  in  the  United  States 
to  produce  a  complete  Charity  Organization  Society  of  the 
London  type."  The  immediate  and  most  active  promoter 
was  the  Rev.  S.  H.  Gurteen,  an  English  clergyman.  He 
organized  the  work  of  his  parish  guild  so  that  the  case  of 
every  applicant  for  aid  was  promptly  investigated.  He 
lectured  on  "  Phases  of  Charity,"  and  proposed  a  central 
clearing-house  for  the  charities  of  the  city.  As  a  result  of 


CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT      in 

these  and  similar  activities  the  Buffalo  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society  was  organized  in  1877,  and  it  "adhered  to 
the  principle  of  coordinating  existing  relief  agencies 
and  giving  no  relief  from  its  own  funds  except  in 
rare  emergencies." 

The  Philadelphia  society  seems  to  have  started  with 
"  the  officers  of  several  soup  societies."  The  plan  of 
organization  was  that  of  "  ward  associations  "  correlated 
through  a  central  board.  In  commenting  on  this  the  com- 
mittee of  1893  says  that  "  the  work  often  fell  into  wrong 
hands,  and  the  Ward  Associations  were  so  many  new 
almsgiving  societies.  By  their  attitude  they  were  virtu- 
ally saying  to  all  the  older  charitable  societies  that  there 
was  no  need  of  them,  and  they,  as  a  rule,  refused  coopera- 
tion, and  still  withhold  it."  There  are  enough  evidences 
of  this  "  holier  than  thou  "  attitude  in  other  cities  to 
justify  us  in  saying  that  it  has  been  a  rather  frequent 
failing  of  the  charity  organization  societies. 

By  1893  there  were  reported  to  be  fifty-five  such 
organizations  in  the  United  States,  and  the  present  num- 
ber is  probably  not  far  from  four  hundred.  In  order  to 
stimulate  this  development,  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation 
established  a  charity  organization  department  in  charge  of 
Miss  Mary  Richmond.  More  recently  there  has  been 
organized  a  more  or  less  independent  society  known  at  first 
as  the  American  Association  of  Societies  for  Organizing 
Charity  and  now  called  the  American  Association  for 
Organizing  Family  Social  Work.  These  two  agencies 
have  through  community  studies,  the  distribution  of  litera- 
ture and  other  publicity  greatly  increased  the  number  of 
societies  and  have  also  developed  an  tsprit  de  corps  among 
the  secretaries  and  other  workers. 


ii2  SOCIAL  WORK 

POLICIES  OF  THE  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT 

We  have  already  noted  how  the  early  charity  organi- 
zation folk  set  themselves  against  the  giving  of  material 
relief.  Very  soon,  however,  they  found  themselves  com- 
pelled to  distribute  groceries,  cash,  etc.,  but  wherever  pos- 
sible they  get  some  other  agency  or  some  individual  to  do 
this.  The  Charity  Organization  Society  therefore  medi- 
ates between  its  "  client  "  and  the  sources  of  relief.  The 
virtue  of  this  has  lain  in  calling  attention  to  the  more 
important  aspects  of  social  work,  the  diagnosis  and  adjust- 
ment of  personal  difficulties.  But  its  vice  has  been  the 
development  of  an  attitude  verging  on  stinginess  where 
material  aid  is  really  necessary,  and  the  inefficient  ex- 
penditure of  effort  in  assembling  a  few  dollars  here,  a 
basket  of  groceries  there,  a  bag  of  coal  yonder  and  a  pair 
of  blankets  somewhere  else. 

Another  policy  of  the  C.  O.  S.  has  been  the  correlation 
of  other  agencies.  In  this  it  has  never  been  entirely  suc- 
cessful, perhaps  for  reasons  suggested  in  the  report  on  the 
Philadelphia  society.  The  idea  of  one  private  organization 
saying  to  the  others,  "  Here,  do  your  work  through  us, 
and  make  us  the  center  of  social  work  in  this  city  "  has 
never  appealed  strongly  to  those  in  other  societies.  What 
is  happening  today  is  the  development  of  correlation,  to 
which  the  C.  O.  S.  had  pointed  the  way,  through  more  or 
less  democratically  organized  "councils  of  social  agencies" 
in  which  the  C.  O.  S.  takes  its  place  as  one  of  the  group, 
instead  of  as  a  somewhat  dictatorial  outsider. 

The  development  of  clearing  houses  or  central  regis- 
tration bureaus  has  been  a  third  policy  of  the  C.  O.  S.  This 
has  been  really  a  phase  of  the  policy  of  correlation  and 
seems  to  be  going  through  a  similar  transition.  That  is, 
the  idea  of  registration  is  good  and  will  be  retained 
and  extended,  but  it  will  doubtless  be  more  and 


CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT      113 

more  administered  by  cooperative  effort  instead  of  by  one 
single  agency. 

Friendly  visiting  has  been  a  fourth  policy,  and  it  still 
occupies  a  large  part  of  the  C.  O.  S.  program.  The  1893 
report  speaks  of  friendly  visiting  as  "  the  soul  of  the  move- 
ment." The  plan  is  that  of  "  inducing  men  and  women 
having  strength  of  character  to  go  to  the  homes  of  the 
needy,  each  taking  the  chief  responsibility  for  the  proper 
development,  material  and  moral,  of  a  few  families." 
While  it  has  been  often  "  the  means  by  which  the  higher 
resources  of  society,  its  hope,  discipline,  thrift  and  kind- 
ness of  heart,  are  diffused  among  the  depressed  and  those 
who  have  fallen  by  the  way,"  it  has  also  often  been  the 
occasion  for  "  emotional  sprees  "  indulged  in  by  "  Ladies 
Bountiful."  Probably  most  friendly  visiting  has  not  really 
been  friendly,  in  the  sense  of  involving  a  mutual  relation- 
ship; it  has  more  likely  been  "  uplift,"  which  is  something 
very  different  from  friendship. 

District  conferences  represent  a  fifth  policy  of  the 
C.  O.  S.  These  include  not  only  social  workers,  but  people 
of  various  other  occupations  as  well.  Their  purposes  are 
four :  ( i )  to  "  thresh  out  "  difficult  problems,  (2)  to  train 
volunteers  and  new  workers,  (3)  to  retain  the  interest  of 
good  contributors,  (4)  to  use  individual  problems  as  a 
basis  for  planning  community  programs. 

"  Provident  schemes  "  which  interested  the  early  C.  O. 
S.  included :  day  nurseries,  kindergartens,  classes  in  cook- 
ing, manual  training,  stamp  books  and  fuel  funds.  Much 
attention  was  also  given  to  the  repression  of  street  begging 
and  vagrancy.  The  C.  O.  S.  workers  interested  themselves 
in  better  housing  and  in  various  sorts  of  remedial  legisla- 
tion, such  as  the  "  separation  of  paupers  from  criminals  in 
public  institutions,"  amendment  of  poor  relief  laws,  estab- 

8 


ii4  SOCIAL  WORK 

lishment  of  municipal  lodging-houses  and  the  regulation 
of  immigration. 

A  more  recent  development  is  the  Transportation 
Agreement,  first  drawn  up  under  the  auspices  of  the 
National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  and  now 
having  nearly  800  signers.  Its  most  important  provisions 
are  these:  (i)  No  charitable  transportation  is  to  be 
granted  without  reliable  evidence  that  the  applicant  is  un- 
able to  pay  his  fare,  that  his  condition  and  prospects  will  be 
improved  by  going  to  the  new  place,  and  that  he  will  have 
resources  for  his  maintenance  at  the  destination  or  that  he 
has  a  legal  residence  there.  (2)  The  applicant  is  to  be  taken 
care  of  until  the  necessary  evidence  can  be  obtained. 
(3)  The  charitable  organization  or  official  at  the  destina- 
tion is  to  be  advised  that  transportation  is  being  considered 
or  has  been  determined  upon. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  contribution  of  the  charity  organ- 
ization movement  has  been  the  development  of  what  has 
come  to  be  known  as  the  "  case  method  "  of  analysing  and 
treating  human  problems.  By  this  is  meant  essentially  the 
study  and  treatment  of  each  individual  and  family  as  a 
unique  problem.  The  effort  is  made  to  secure  such  sig- 
nificant information  about  family  histories,  physical  and 
mental  condition,  habits,  education,  occupation,  attitudes 
and  relations  to  other  people  as  will  make  possible  a  clear 
definition  of  the  problem  to  be  solved.  On  the  side  of 
treatment  it  means  the  utilization  of  the  particular  re- 
sources available  to  the  individual  or  family  in  question  in 
such  manner  that  the  difficulty  may  be  removed. 

WIDER  APPLICATION  OF  THE  CASE  METHOD 

It  is  obviously  impossible  in  this  brief  discussion  to 
present  anything  like  an  adequate  account  of  the  technique 
of  case  work.  But  some  further  understanding  of  it  may 


CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT      115 

be  gathered  from  noting  the  wide  range  of  agencies  in 
which  it  is  being  found  serviceable.  Among  these  are 
organizations  which  work  with  children,  such  as  societies 
for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  children,  children's  home 
societies,  juvenile  courts,  children's  institutions,  etc.  All 
of  the  best  of  these  agencies  do  careful  case  work  and 
cooperate  closely  with  other  social  agencies.  Not  only  have 
the  children's  agencies  adopted  many  case  work  principles ; 
they  have  added  to  them,  their  particular  contribution 
being  the  use  of  applied  psychology.  Especially  note- 
worthy has  been  the  work  done  in  the  juvenile  courts  of 
Chicago  and  Boston,  and  in  the  Ohio  Bureau  of 
Juvenile  Research. 

A  similar  development  has  taken  place  in  the  handling 
of  adult  delinquents.  Here,  however,  it  has  been  the 
psychiatrists  rather  than  the  psychologists  who  have  been 
most  active  and  have  added  most  to  the  technique  of  case 
work.  Some  of  the  most  significant  work  along  this  line 
has  been  done  in  the  municipal  courts  of  Chicago,  Boston, 
Philadelphia,  and  in  such  institutions  as  Sing  Sing,  West- 
chester  County  Penitentiary,  Indiana  State  Prison,  and  the 
reformatories  for  women  at  Bedford  Hills,  New  York, 
and  South  Framingham,  Massachusetts. 

A  third  field  for  the  application  of  C.  O.  S  methods  is 
medical  social  work.  By  this,  we  mean  assistance  to  the 
physicians  of  a  hospital  or  dispensary  in  the  education  of 
patients  and  in  the  control  of  their  environment.  The  first 
social  service  department  of  this  type  was  founded  in  1906 
at  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  by  Dr.  Richard  C. 
Cabot.  Among  the  services  most  frequently  rendered  by 
such  departments  are  arranging  for  convalescent  care,  aid 
in  diagnosis  by  investigating  post  history,  supervising 
hygiene,  arranging  for  examination  of  persons  exposed 
to  contagious  diseases,  securing  and  supervising  the  wear- 


n6  SOCIAL  WORK 

ing  of  apparatus,  and  assuring  advised  hospital  care.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  by  those  engaged  in  this  work  that  the 
presence  of  acute  poverty  is  not  the  most  frequent  cause 
for  taking  up  a  social  service  case  in  a  hospital  or  dis- 
pensary, and  that  education  rather  than  relief  is  the  domi- 
nating activity. 

Vocational  guidance  and  labor  management  provide 
unlimited  opportunities  for  applying  and  still  further 
developing  the  techniques  originally  developed  by  the 
charity  organization  societies.  In  both  these  newer  lines 
of  work,  it  is  found  necessary  to  make  a  careful  study  of 
the  individual's  personal  traits.  Wise  action  can  not  be 
taken  without  adequate  information  concerning  the  per- 
son's physical  and  mental  condition,  his  character,  his 
physical  environment  and  his  associates. 

Other  uses  for  this  technique  are  to  be  found  in  the 
public  schools,  in  religious  work,  in  courts  of  domestic 
relations,  and  in  the  diagnosis  of  feeblemindedness 
and  insanity. 

But  perhaps  the  most  important  application  of  the  case 
method  has  been  in  the  field  of  social  science.  That  is,  it  is 
coming  to  be  used  not  merely  with  reference  to  particular 
cases  which  it  is  desired  to  help,  but  also  as  a  means  of 
working  at  scientific  problems  of  a  more  general  character. 
This  appears,  as  might  be  anticipated,  in  books  dealing 
with  delinquents  such  as  those  of  Healy  and  Kammerer, 
and  in  such  magazines  as  the  Journal  of  Criminal  Law  and 
the  Journal  of  Delinquency.  It  also  appears  in  studies  like 
Miss  Brandt's  "  574  Deserters  and  Their  Families,"  and 
Mrs.  Solenberger*s  "  One  Thousand  Homeless  Men."  The 
case  method  has  been  definitely  employed  in  the  training 
of  social  workers,  and  teaching  records  have  been  prepared 
by  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  and  the  American  Red 
Cross.  Even  more  significant  is  the  adoption  of  the  case 


CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  MOVEMENT      117 

method  by  the  students  of  Social  Psychology  and  Race 
Problems.  This,  for  example,  underlies  such  works  as 
Thomas'  "  Polish  Peasant." 

Indeed,  the  social  scientists  owe  a  peculiar  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  charity  organization  movement  for  giving 
them  the  case  method.  Had  the  C.  O.  S.  movement  failed 
utterly  as  a  scheme  of  relief — which,  of  course,  it  has  not 
— it  would  still  have  made  an  invaluable  contribution  in 
this  method  of  studying  social  problems.  To  have  de- 
veloped out  of  indiscriminate  almsgiving  and  perfunctory 
investigation  a  genuine  technology  is  no  mean  achievement. 

In  this  development  of  the  charity  organization  move- 
ment, it  is  interesting  to  see  how  out  of  a  bourgeois  phil- 
anthropy there  has  been  gradually  growing  up  the  idea  of 
professional  service,  utilizing  scientific  principles  and 
methods.  The  recent  eagerness  to  displace  the  name 
"  charity  organization  society  "  with  that  of  "family  wel- 
fare association  "  suggests  the  spirit  of  this  change.  Also, 
there  has  been  a  growing  emphasis  upon  preventive  and 
constructive  work.  Social  legislation  and  educational  ef- 
forts to  raise  the  standards  of  living  have  more  and  more 
interested  those  whose  primary  activities  have  been  in  the 
charity  organization  societies  or  their  successors.  In 
England  these  folk  were  particularly  strong  advocates  of 
old  age  pensions,  and  in  America  of  the  health  insurance 
schemes,  which  so  far  have  failed  of  adoption. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Bosanquet,  Helen :  Social  Work  m  London,  1869  to  1912.  A  History 
of  thf  Chanty  Organisation  Socifty.  London:  John  Murray, 
1914. 

Loch,  C.  S.:  Chanty  Organisation.  London:  Swan  Sonnenschein, 
1892. 

London  Charity  Organization  Society.    Occasional  Papers. 

Gurteen,  S.  H. :  A  Handbook  of  Chanty  Organisation.    Buffalo,  1882. 


u8  SOCIAL  WORK 

Nat.  Conf .  Char.  &  Corr.,  1881,  100-195 ;  1893,  52-93. 

Brandt,  Lilian:   The  Charity  Organisation  Society  of  the  City  of 

New  York,  1882-1907.    New  York :  United  Charities  Bldg.,  1907. 
Warner,  Amos  G. :  American  Charities.    New  York:  Crowell,  third 

edition,  1919.    Chap.  22  (second  edition,  Chap  19). 
Devine,  Edward  T.:   The  Principles  of  Relief.    New  York:  Mac- 

millan,  1905,  Part  3,  Chap.  3. 
Richmond,   Mary  E. :  Social  Diagnosis.    New   York :   Russell  Sage 

Foundation,  1917. 
Richmond,   Mary    E. :    What    Is   Social   Case    Work?     New    Yoik: 

Russell  Sage  Foundation,  1922. 
Periodicals:  Charity  Organisation  Review  (London),  Charities  and 

Commons    (New    York    and    Chicago),    Survey    (New    York), 

Family  (New  York). 


CHAPTER  VII 
HOUSING  REFORM 

CLOSELY  related  to  the  charity  organization  movement 
is  the  effort  to  better  housing  conditions.  The  modern 
problems  of  housing  grew  up  with  those  of  poverty  and 
anonymity  during  and  after  the  Industrial  Revolution. 
The  rapid  building  of  factories  and  the  extension  of 
commerce  drew  into  the  towns  and  cities  crowds  of  people 
whom  they  were  not  at  all  ready  to  accommodate.  This 
meant  inevitably  overcrowding  and  soaring  rents.  The 
crowding  and  poverty  of  the  new  city-dwellers  combined 
with  their  ignorance  of  sanitation  to  destroy  health  and 
breed  disease. 

How  bad  conditions  really  were  may  be  gathered  from 
Lord  Shaftesbury's  description  of  a  part  of  London  in  the 
sixties.  "  There  was  a  famous  place  called  Bermondsey 

Island. It  was  a  large  swamp;  a  number  of 

people  lived  there,  as  they  do  in  Holland,  in  houses  built 

upon  piles So  bad  was  the  supply  of  water 

there  that  I  have  positively  seen  the  women  drop  their 
buckets  into  the  water  over  which  they  were  living,  and  in 
which  was  deposited  all  the  filth  of  the  place,  that  being  the 
only  water  that  they  had  for  every  purpose — washing, 
drinking  and  so  on." 

In  1853  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition 
of  the  Poor  in  New  York  presented  to  the  public  a  startling 
picture  of  dilapidation  and  filth.  In  the  course  of  the  re- 
port it  described  a  notorious  tenement  known  as  "  Gotham 
Court,"  which  housed  over  500  people.  Although  described 
as  "  one  of  the  better  class,"  its  apartments  or  tenements 

119 


120  SOCIAL  WORK 

consisted  of  two  rooms  each  which  housed  at  the  time  of 
the  investigation  an  average  of  seven  persons.  In  place 
of  a  private  toilet  for  each  family,  there  were  a  number  of 
privies  in  the  basement  of  this  five-story  building.  These 
were  so  insanitary  as  to  produce  a  distinct  odor  as  high 
as  the  third  floor.  Of  the  504  tenants,  146  were  found 
to  be  suffering  from  serious  diseases,  including  small- 
pox, typhus,  scarletina  and  measles.  The  annual  death  rate 
in  the  building  was  nearly  twenty  per  cent. 

Some  attention  was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  given  to 
the  problems  of  housing  their  employes  by  the  early  fac- 
tory owners.  But  the  special  interest  in  housing  seems  to 
have  developed  most  rapidly  in  cities  where  there  were 
charity  organization  societies.  Moreover,  the  very  same 
people  were  frequently  interested  in  both  projects. 

THE  BOURGEOIS  REFORMERS 

The  essentially  bourgeois  character  of  the  movement 
for  housing  reform  appears  in  the  following  names  and 
titles :  Society  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Labor- 
ing Classes,  Bill  for  Facilitating  the  Improvement  of  the 
Dwellings  oi  the  Working  Classes  in  Large  Towns,  Com- 
mission on  the  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes,  etc.  As 
late  as  1894  a  Federal  report  bore  this  title :  The  Slums  of 
Baltimore,  Chicago,  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  In  this 
report  "  slums "  were  defined  as  "  dirty,  back  streets, 
especially  such  streets  as  are  inhabited  by  a  squalid  and 
criminal  population."  And  then,  comments  Mrs.  Wood, 
"  they  are  surprised  by  the  lack  of  cordiality  with  which 
their  investigators  are  received  by  those  whom  they  have 
just  labeled  '  a  squalid  and  criminal  population! ' 

The  housing  reform  movement  in  London  seems  to 
have  started  with  the  Society  for  Improving  the  Condition 
of  the  Laboring  Classes  in  1844.  Within  a  dozen  years 


HOUSING  REFORM  121 

there  were  eight  associations  of  a  similar  character.  From 
the  very  beginning  the  Charity  Organization  Society  inter- 
ested itself  in  housing.  One  of  those  whose  names  are 
prominently  associated  with  both  movements  was  Miss 
Octavia  Hill.  In  1865  she  raised  enough  money  to  buy 
three  dilapidated  houses  and  begin  her  experiment  of  rent 
collecting  through  friendly  visitors.  She  undertook  to 
prove  "  that  the  most  unpromising  old  tenements  could  be 
put  in  a  fairly  sanitary  condition  by  judicious  repairs,  and 
that  through  devoted  personal  service  and  the  establish- 
ment of  friendly  relations  with  the  tenants,  the  houses 
could  be  kept  clean  and  decent  and  a  great  improvement 
effected  in  the  health  and  habits  of  the  people  living  in 
them."  In  1822  the  London  Charity  Organization  Society 
formed  a  number  of  Sanitary  Aid  Committees,  which  were 
to  invite  complaints  of  insanitary  conditions,  investigate 
these,  and  in  their  discretion  bring  them  to  the  attention 
of  the  local  sanitary  authorities,  the  owner,  water  company 
or  the  police. 

In  1884  a  Unitarian  clergyman  who  was  one  of  the 
original  promoters  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society, 
started  a  campaign  for  the  building  of  industrial  villages. 
As  a  result  a  number  of  companies  were  organized  to 
build  houses  just  outside  of  London.  Among  these  were 
the  Cottage  Homes  Company,  the  People's  Homes,  Ltd., 
and  the  East  End  Dwellings  Company.  About  1890 
Ebenezer  Howard  published  his  book,  "  Garden  Cities  of 
Tomorrow,"  and  in  1899  the  Garden  City  Association  was 
formed  to  carry  out  his  ideas.  In  1903  First  Garden  City, 
Ltd.,  was  organized  and  Letchworth  was  built. 

A  similar  series  of  events  may  be  traced  in  New  York. 
In  1846  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of 
the  Poor  began  a  vigorous  agitation  for  better  housing.  In 
1853  it  appointed  a  special  committee  "  to  inquire  into  the 


122  SOCIAL  WORK 

sanitary  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  and  the  practi- 
cability of  devising  measures  for  improving  the  comfort 
and  healthiness  of  their  habitations."  This  committee 
made  an  elaborate  statistical  investigation  which  has  been 
described  as  "  the  first  sociological  study  of  tene- 
ment conditions." 

The  story  of  the  first  legislative  committee  appointed 
in  1857  to  examine  into  the  condition  of  "  tenant  houses  " 
in  New  York  and  Brooklyn  is  thus  told  by  Mrs.  Wood. 
They  decided  "  '  to  proceed  to  a  thorough  personal  inspec- 
tion of  tenant  houses  in  every  ward  of  the  city.'  Safe- 
guarded by  a  detail  of  police,  guided  by  the  chief  of  the 
sanitary  bureau,  and  accompanied  by  reporters,  they  '  pene- 
trated to  localities  and  witnessed  scenes  which  in  frightful 
novelty  far  exceeded  the  limit  of  their  previously  con- 
ceived ideas  of  human  degredation  and  suffering,'  The 
committee  felt  that  they  were  indeed  exploring  a  strange 
and  hostile  land  in  performing  what  they  described  as  their 
'arduous,  painful,  and  as  may  be  conjectured  hazard- 
ous duty.'  " 

Following  the  "draft  riots"  of  1863  a  number  of 
prominent  people  organized  the  Citizen's  Association, 
which  created  a  sub-committee  known  as  the  Council  of 
Hygiene  and  Public  Health.  The  Council  at  once  planned 
a  thorough  sanitary  investigation  of  the  city,  and  presented 
a  valuable  report  including  maps  and  diagrams.  In  the 
seventies  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association  assumed  a 
prominent  place  in  the  housing  movement.  In  the  eighties 
Jacob  Riis  contributed  his  newspaper  technique  to  the 
cause.  During  these  years  numbers  of  "  model  tene- 
ments "  were  erected ;  of  these  we  shall  speak  later. 

In  1898  the  New  York  Charity  Organization  Society 
assumed  an  active  part  in  the  agitation.  It  appointed  a 
tenement  house  committee  which  spent  six  months  framing 


HOUSING  REFORM  123 

a  series  of  proposed  ordinances  which  were  given  wide 
publicity  through  a  pamphlet  of  the  society  and  through 
newspaper  comments.  However,  none  of  the  recom- 
mendations were  adopted  by  the  municipal  authorities. 
The  Society  then  planned  and  carried  through  a  tenement 
house  exposition,  with  models,  photographs,  maps,  charts 
and  statistics.  In  connection  with  this,  the  committee  held 
a  competition  to  arouse  interest  among  architects.  The 
outcome  of  this  series  of  efforts  was  the  establishment  of 
a  Tenement  House  Commission  for  the  City  of  New  York. 

MODEL   HOUSING  UNDER   PRIVATE   INITIATIVE 

Along  with  all  this  agitation  and  in  part  resulting  from 
it  have  come  four  types  of  results :  ( i )  "  model  housing  " 
under  private  initiative,  (2)  restrictive  legislation  per- 
taining to  light,  air,  fire  protection,  etc.,  (3)  construction 
of  new  houses  by  the  government  or  with  government  aid, 
(4)  city  planning  and  zoning. 

The  privately  initiated  schemes  may  be  classed  under 
five  heads:  (a)  philanthropic  trust  funds,  (b)  limited  divi- 
dend housing  companies,  (c)  Octavia  Hill  enterprises, 
(d)  industrial  housing  by  employers,  (e)  chamber  of  com- 
merce enterprises.  Of  the  philanthropic  trust  funds  there 
are  numerous  examples  in  England  and  Germany,  but  only 
two  of  importance  in  the  United  States.  One  is  the 
Charlesbank  Homes  of  Boston,  founded  in  1911  by  Edwin 
Ginn,  the  publisher.  The  physical  equipment  consists  in  a 
five-story  building  with  103  apartments.  The  descriptive 
booklet  states  that  "  no  profits  or  income  derived  in  any 
way  from  the  building  will  at  any  time  be  divided  among 

the  incorporators but  all  such  profits  and  net 

income  will  be  applied  to  the  purchase  of  land  and  the 
erection  of  other  buildings  to  extend  the  blessings  and 
benefits  of  good  homes  to  needy  and  deserving  people." 


I24  SOCIAL  WORK 

The  limited  dividend  housing  companies  represent 
what  is  sometimes  referred  to  as  "  philanthropy  at  five  per 
cent."  They  have  produced  "model  tenements,"  two-flat 
houses  and  a  few  single  family  dwellings.  Among  the 
companies  which  have  erected  "  model  tenements  "  are  the 
Workman's  Home  Association  (New  York,  1854),  Co- 
operative Building  Company  (Boston,  1871),  Alfred  T. 
White  Tenements  (New  York,  1878-1890),  City  and 
Suburban  Homes  Company  (New  York,  1896).  The 
Boston  Cooperative  Building  Company  limited  its  divi- 
dends to  seven  per  cent.,  and  of  late  years  has  been  earning 
only  four  or  five  per  cent.  It  has  built  five  groups  of  tene- 
ment houses,  with  every  room  opening  to  the  outer  air, 
running  water  in  every  apartment,  but  not  fireproof  and 
without  separate  toilet  facilities.  A  committee  of  ladies 
was  in  charge  of  each  estate,  and  in  the  main  women  agents 
have  been  employed. 

The  Washington  Sanitary  Improvement  Company  has 
built  310  two-flat  houses  with  separate  entrances  and  sep- 
arate back  yards  for  the  two  families  sharing  each  house. 
Each  flat  has  toilet,  bath,  gas  and  other  improvements. 
Dividends  of  five  per  cent,  are  paid  to  the  stockholders. 
Single  family  houses  built  by  limited  dividend  companies 
are  much  more  numerous  in  England  than  in  America. 
In  this  country  a  few  houses  have  been  so  provided  at 
Billerica,  Mass.;  Westerly  Gardens,  N.  J.;  Titus  Town, 
Va.,  and  Torrance,  Cal. 

The  Octavia  Hill  idea  to  which  we  referred  above  has 
been  applied  in  a  number  of  different  cities,  but  apparently 
the  only  organization  to  bear  her  name  is  the  Octavia  Hill 
Association  of  Philadelphia.  This  was  organized  in  1896 
as  a  joint  stock  company  for  "  holding,  selling  and  leasing 
real  estate."  The  articles  of  incorporation  state  that  its 
aim  is  "  to  improve  the  living  conditions  of  the  poorer 


HOUSING  REFORM  125 

residence  districts  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia  ....  It 
offers  its  services  also  to  other  owners  of  like  properties. 
In  this  capacity  it  attends  to  collection,  alteration,  repairs, 
clerical  and  special  work,  general  oversight,  etc.,  and  makes 
a  fair  charge  for  such  services."  While  the  articles  of  in- 
corporation do  not  limit  the  dividends,  the  directors  have 
restricted  them  to  four  per  cent.  The  1917  report  of  the 
Association  stated  that  it  owned  179  houses  with  244  fam- 
ilies and  was  agent  for  224  houses  and  460  families. 

The  efforts  of  employers  to  provide  housing  for  their 
workmen  have  been  described  in  the  chapter  on  Industrial 
Welfare  Work.  Closely  related  to  them  are  the  more 
recent  chamber  of  commerce  enterprises.  Under  the 
auspices  of  chambers  of  commerce  building  companies 
have  been  formed  since  1910  in  Albany,  N.  Y. ;  Elmira, 
N.  Y. ;  Kenosha,  Wis. ;  Bridgeport,  Conn,  and  Flint,  Mich. 

HOUSING  LEGISLATION 

Legislation  in  the  United  States  has  dealt  almost  ex- 
clusively with  the  negative  or  restrictive  aspect  of  housing 
problems.  It  has  been  largely  of  the  "thou-shalt-not"  vari- 
ety, and  has  rarely  provided  for  the  construction  of  houses 
to  meet  the  shortage  or  to  displace  those  which  needed 
to  be  torn  down.  The  earliest  legislation  of  this  sort  in 
America  resulted  from  the  work  of  the  Council  of  Hygiene 
and  Public  Health  in  New  York.  The  first  steps  were  the 
establishment  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Health  in 
1866,  and  in  1867  the  enactment  of  a  tenement  house  law. 
This  and  all  subsequent  legislation  in  New  York  has 
stressed  the  negative,  and  out  of  it  has  come  a  "  model 
housing  law  "  worked  out  largely  by  Mr.Veiller.  The  New 
York  development  has  influenced  the  rest  of  the  country, 
and  the  National  Housing  Association  has  a  list  of  over 


126  SOCIAL  WORK 

forty  cities — far  too  few — which  are  supposed  to  have 
housing  or  tenement  house  codes. 

The  pioneers  in  constructive  housing  legislation  are 
Great  Britain,  Belgium  and  Germany.  Following  them, 
France,  Italy,  Australia,  New  Zealand  and  numerous  other 
countries  have  offered  government  aid  in  the  construction 
of  new  houses.  The  four  leading  types  of  government 
aid  to  be  found  in  foreign  countries  are:  (i)  state  or 
municipal  construction,  (2)  loans  to  non-commercial 
housing  companies,  (3)  loans  to  individuals,  (4)  exemp- 
tion from  taxation. 

Under  the  first  plan,  the  state  or  the  city  buys  land, 
builds  houses  and  then  rents  them,  turns  them  over  to  the 
housing  companies  to  manage,  or  sells  them  on  easy  terms 
to  the  tenants.  This  direct  governmental  participation  is 
most  developed  in  Germany,  although  it  has  also  become 
very  important  in  England.  The  only  important  instance 
of  the  kind  in  the  United  States  has  been  the  work  of  the 
Federal  Government  in  providing  houses  for  "  war 
workers."  However,  a  small  start  has  been  made  by  the 
Massachusetts  Homestead  Commission. 

The  second  plan  is  for  the  state  to  lend  money  at  a  low 
rate  of  interest  to  non-commercial  housing  companies, 
whether  philanthropic  in  character  or  cooperative  societies. 
This  seems  to  be  the  characteristic  method  in  Italy,  but  has 
received  its  widest  development  in  England  and  Germany. 

The  third  scheme  is  to  loan  money  on  favorable  terms 
to  the  individual  who  wishes  to  buy  or  build  his  own  home. 
In  Belgium  and  France  the  loans  are  negotiated  through 
non-commercial  loan  companies,  in  New  Zealand  they  are 
made  directly.  This  plan  has  produced  fewer  results  than 
either  of  the  others,  and  has  particularly  failed  to  reach  the 
unskilled  wage-earners. 


HOUSING  REFORM  12? 

As  compared  with  the  preceding  types  of  government 
aid,  the  exemption  from  taxation  is  relatively  unim- 
portant and  need  not  detain  us  here. 

CITY  PLANNING  AND  ZONING 

Qosely  connected  with  the  housing  movement  and  in 
part  an  outgrowth  of  it  is  the  more  recent  development  of 
city  planning  and  zoning.  Washington  and  Philadelphia 
were  planned  from  the  beginning.  The  city  council  of 
New  York  in  1807  appointed  a  commission  to  prepare  a 
plan  for  the  city.  In  1843  Robert  Gourley  made  "  Plans 
for  Enlarging  and  Improving  the  City  of  Boston."  But 
the  modern  city  planning  movement  dates  from  the  nine- 
ties. Influenced  by  the  French  and  English,  American 
architects  interested  themselves  in  the  "city  beautiful." 
The  series  of  fairs  and  expositions  beginning  with  the 
World's  Fair  at  Chicago  in  1893  also  seems  to  have 
furnished  an  example  and  incentive  to  the  real  planning 
of  cities.  Immediately  after  the  World's  Fair,  Chicago 
began  to  elevate  its  railway  tracks  and  to  expand  its  park 
system.  Presently  the  Commercial  Club  took  up  the  idea 
and  put  forth  a  very  elaborate  plan  intended  to  cost  the  city 
some  $200,000,000. 

As  in  Chicago  a  great  deal  has  been  accomplished  by 
privately  organized  city  planning  commissions.  But  more 
and  more  this  function  is  being  taken  over  by  city  govern- 
ments. The  first  Municipal  Plan  Commission  seems  to 
have  been  appointed  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  in  1907,  but  so 
rapidly  has  the  idea  spread  that  by  1914  nearly  one  hun- 
dred cities  had  such  commissions.  There  are  now  five 
states  which  have  laws  permitting  cities  to  appoint  official 
planning  boards — New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio  and  California — besides  Massachusetts,  which  re- 
quires them  to  do  so. 


128  SOCIAL  WORK 

Zoning  developed  first  in  Germany.  This  involved 
the  districting  of  a  city  for  residential,  commercial  and 
industrial  purposes.  It  usually  included  the  regulation  of 
heights  of  buildings  and  the  percentage  of  a  lot  which 
might  be  built  upon.  Boston  and  Baltimore  were  the  first 
American  cities  to  regulate  the  height  of  buildings,  and 
Los  Angeles  was  the  first  to  create  residence  districts  in 
which  certain  occupations  could  not  be  carried  on. 

In  the  movement  for  housing  reform  we  see  much  the 
same  trend  that  we  recognized  in  the  charity  organization 
movement.  Both  started  as  the  philanthropic  enterprises 
of  private  individuals,  most  of  whom  belong  to  the  middle 
and  upper  classes.  Both  are  coming  to  be  more  and  more 
recognized  as  public  functions  carried  on  by  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole.  In  neither  case  are  we  ready  to  dis- 
pense with  charity,  for  democracy  has  not  yet  been 
achieved.  But  all  signs  point  to  a  transition  from  benevo- 
lent uplift  work  to  professional  public  service. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

DeForest,  Robt.  W.,  and  Veiller,  Lawrence:  The  Tenement  House 

Problem.     New  York:  Macmillan,  1903. 
Wood,   Edith    E. :    The   Housing   of   the    Unskilled   Wage   Earner. 

New  York :  Macmillan,  1919. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.    Bulletin  No.  158,   1915.     "  Gov- 
ernment Aid  to  Home-owning  and  Housing  of  Working  People 

in  Foreign  Countries." 
London  County  Council.     The  Housing  Question  in  London — 1855- 

/ooo.     London:  P.  S.  King,  1901. 
Bosanquet,  Helen  D. :  Social  Work  in  London.    New  York:  Dut- 

ton,  1914. 
Bowmaker,  Edw. :  The  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes.    London : 

Methuen,  1895. 
Parsons,  Jas. :  Housing  by  Voluntary  Enterprise.    London :   King, 

1903- 

Clarke,  J.  J. :  The  Housing  Problem,  Its  History,  Growth,  Legisla- 
tion and  Procedure.    London :  Pitman. 


HOUSING  REFORM  129 

Reports  of  State  Departments,  e.g.,  California  Commission  of  Im- 
migration and  Housing,  Massachusetts  Homestead  Commission, 
Michigan  Housing  Commission,  New  Jersey  Board  of  Tenement 
House  Supervision. 

Reports  of  Municipal  Departments,  e.g.,  New  York  Tenement  House 
Department,  Louisville  Tenement  House  Commission,  Los 
Angeles  Housing  Commission,  Kansas  City  Board  of  Public  Wel- 
fare (special  report  1912). 

Reports  of  Housing  Associations:  Cambridge  Housing  Association, 
San  Francisco  Housing  Association,  Philadelphia  Housing 
Commission. 

Housing  Problems  in  America.  Proceedings  of  the  National  Hous- 
ing Conference,  1912 — 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT 

"  A  SETTLEMENT  is  a  colony  of  members  of  the  upper 
classes,  formed  in  a  poor  neighborhood,  with  the  double 
purpose  of  getting  to  know  the  local  conditions  of  life 
from  personal  observation,  and  of  helping  where  help  is 
needed.  The  settler  gives  up  the  comfort  of  a  West  End 
home,  and  becomes  a  friend  of  the  poor.  He  sacrifices  to 
them  his  hours  of  leisure,  and  fills  his  imagination  with 
pictures  of  misery  and  crime,  instead  of  with  impressions 
of  beauty  and  happiness.  For  a  shorter  or  longer  time  the 
slum  becomes  his  home.  Only  seldom  does  he  show  him- 
self at  his  Club,  at  the  theatre,  in  Society.  This  means 
the  loosening  of  social  and  personal  ties,  in  many  cases 
the  foregoing  of  the  prospect  of  an  early  marriage,  and 
neglect  of  favorite  pursuits.  It  means  a  sacrifice  of  life 

The  settler  comes  to  the  poor  as  man  to  man, 

in  the  conviction  that  it  means  a  misfortune  for  all  parties 
and  a  danger  for  the  nation,  if  the  different  classes  live 
in  complete  isolation  of  thought  and  environment.  He 
comes  to  bridge  the  gulf  between  the  classes.  He  has  lost 
confidence  in  legislative  and  administrative  measures 
which  would  solve  the  social  problem  academically,  and  he 
hates  the  established  forms  of  a  charity  which  humbles 
instead  of  elevating,  and  demoralizes  instead  of  improving. 
He  mistrusts  dead  organizations,  and  would  replace  them 
by  personal  relationships.  Not  as  an  official  but  as  a  friend 
does  he  approach  the  poor,  and  he  knows  that  he  is  thereby 
not  only  the  giver  but  the  receiver.  Life  instead  of  ma- 
chinery, exact  knowledge  of  the  conditions  to  be  improved, 
in  the  midst  of  which  he  must  place  himself  instead  of 
trusting  to  an  unreliable  judgment  from  a  bird's-eye  view 
— this  is  his  motto." 
130 


SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT  131 

In  these  words  are  the  original  spirit  and  methods  of 
the  social  settlements  summarized  by  one  of  their  his- 
torians. These  few  sentences  indicate  at  the  same  time  the 
essentially  bourgeois  character  of  the  settlements  and  their 
possibilities  as  the  agents  of  democracy.  They  are  shown 
to  spring  from  sentimental  motives,  but  at  the  same  time, 
they  are  the  expression  of  some  of  the  finest  idealism  the 
world  has  ever  seen. 

The  situation  which  called  the  settlements  into  being 
was  substantially  that  which  underlay  the  other  humani- 
tarian movements.  In  a  sense  this  was  merely  one  more 
effort  to  overcome  the  poverty,  ignorance  and  exploitation 
of  the  commercial  and  industrial  centers.  But  more  spe- 
cifically it  was  an  attempt  to  bridge  the  gulf  that  separated 
social  classes.  In  previous  centuries  caste  lines  had  been 
even  more  sharply  drawn,  but  because  everyone's  horizon 
was  limited  geographically  he  had  an  acquaintance  with 
nearly  everyone  within  its  limits.  The  relations  between 
nobles  and  peasants  were  much  like  those  between  white 
and  black  in  the  South — "  separate  as  the  fingers  and  one 
as  the  hand."  But  with  the  development  of  large-scale 
industry  personal  relations  were  rapidly  lost.  In  the  new 
cities  rich  and  poor  occupied  different  sections.  The 
middle  and  upper  classes  had  little  to  do  with  the  wage- 
earners.  In  America  this  situation  was  intensified  by  the 
establishment  of  immigrant  colonies  in  the  midst  of  our 
cities.  Although  economically  absorbed,  they  tended  to 
remain  culturally  apart.  One  function  of  the  settlement 
has  been  to  bring  these  varied  elements  into  closer  touch 
with  each  other. 

ENGLISH   ORIGINS 

The  social  settlements  assume,  therefore,  the  existence 
of  a  city  "  slum  "  on  the  one  hand  and  a  missionary  spirit 


132  SOCIAL  WORK 

on  the  other.  The  initiative  for  this  new  movement  came 
quite  directly  from  the  intellectual  idealists,  men  like 
Ruskin  and  Carlyle,  and  from  the  Christian  socialists  led 
by  Maurice  and  Kingsley.  But  while  the  misery  of  English 
cities  provided  the  occasion  and  the  teachings  of  such  men 
as  Ruskin  and  Kingsley  the  inspiration,  it  was  the  students 
of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  who  provided  the  working 
force  and  really  set  the  settlements  going.  Maurice  had 
tried  to  arouse  interest  among  the  University  students  in 
the  Workingmen's  College  which  was  founded  in  London 
in  1854.  As  a  result  of  his  efforts  many  a  man  went  on 
his  own  account  to  spend  his  vacation  in  a  poor  quarter  of 
London  to  study  conditions  at  first  hand,  and  to  help  where 
he  could. 

One  of  the  first  of  these  was  Edward  Denison,  who 
went  to  London  in  1867  and  founded  a  school  in  which  he 
himself  gave  religious  instruction  and  lectures.  Another 
and  even  more  famous  member  of  this  student  group  was 
Arnold  Toynbee,  who  put  himself  in  touch  with  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Barnett's  parish  in  Whitechapel  during  the 
vacation  of  1875.  He  visited  the  schools,  made  investiga- 
tions for  the  Charity  Organization  Society,  and  joined  a 
Workingmen's  Club  as  means  of  acquainting  himself 
more  intimately  with  the  misery  which  had  been  described 
to  him  at  the  University. 

As  we  have  already  intimated,  there  was  a  strong 
religious  element  back  of  the  settlement  movement.  There 
were  numbers  of  missions  maintained  in  the  poorer  part 
of  London  by  the  Anglican  Church,  in  which  some  of  the 
University  men  took  an  active  part.  The  most  famous  of 
all  the  religious  workers  who  had  a  share  in  starting  the 
settlement  movement  was  the  Reverend  Mr.  Barnett,  later 
Canon  of  Westminster,  whose  name  has  already  been 
mentioned.  He  himself  was  an  Oxford  graduate,  but 


SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT  133 

seems  to  have  acquired  his  interest  in  social  questions  not 
so  much  through  his  University  experience  as  through 
personal  acquaintance  with  two  social  workers,  one  of 
whom  later  became  his  wife.  In  1883,  Mr.  Barnett 
received  a  letter  saying  that  two  men  at  St.  John's  College, 
Cambridge,  were  ready  to  do  something  for  the  poor,  but 
did  not  wish  to  start  an  ordinary  mission.  They  wanted 
to  put  themselves  into  the  work  rather  than  simply  making 
an  annual  subscription  to  the  work  of  some  clergyman  in 
a  poor  parish. 

Mr.  Barnett  replied  with  the  suggestion  that  they 
should  rent  a  house  somewhere  in  the  poorer  part  of  the 
city  and  go  there  to  live.  In  a  sense,  it  may  be  said  that 
this  letter  brought  about  the  founding  of  the  first  settle- 
ment, Toynbee  Hall.  The  same  ideas  were  elaborated  and 
further  explained  in  a  lecture  that  Mr.  Barnett  gave  at 
Oxford  later  in  the  same  year.  He  seems  to  have  made  a 
marked  impression  upon  the  students,  for  immediately 
after  the  lecture  a  committee  of  graduates  and  under- 
graduates was  appointed  to  study  and  report  on  means 
for  founding  a  University  Colony  in  East  London.  The 
findings  of  this  committee  were  laid  before  a  gathering  of 
interested  people  at  Oxford  early  in  1884,  as  a  result  of 
which  a  society  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  founding 
a  University  Settlement  in  East  London,  to  be  managed 
by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Barnett.  Because  of  the  great  interest 
which  had  been  shown  by  Arnold  Toynbee,  and  because 
of  his  premature  death  shortly  before,  it  was  decided  to 
name  the  new  institution  in  his  memory  Toynbee  Hall. 

In  the  course  of  the  eighties,  ten  more  settlements  were 
established  in  Great  Britain ;  and  twenty-two  were  opened 
during  the  nineties.  Since  that  time  the  numbers  have  not 
increased  rapidly. 


134  SOCIAL  WORK 

EARLY  AMERICAN  SETTLEMENTS 

In  the  United  States,  the  settlement  seems  to  have  had 
its  beginning  in  the  founding  of  the  Neighborhood  Guild 
in  1887  by  Doctor  Stanton  Coit.  Stimulated  by  a  short 
residence  at  Toynbee  Hall,  Doctor  Coit  went  to  live  in  a 
tenement  on  the  lower  East  Side  of  New  York.  After  four 
years'  existence  as  the  Neighborhood  Guild,  this  enter- 
prise was  reorganized  in  1891  as  the  University  Settlement 
Society.  The  constitution  outlines  as  the  aims  of  the 
Society  "  to  bring  men  and  women  of  education  into  closer 
relations  with  the  laboring  classes  in  this  city  for  their 
mutual  benefit.  The  Society  shall  establish  and  maintain 
in  the  tenement  house  districts  places  of  residence  for 
college  men,  and  others  desirous  of  aiding  in  the  work, 
with  rooms  in  the  neighborhood  where  people  may  meet 
for  social  and  educational  purposes." 

The  second  American  settlement  was  Hull  House, 
which  was  established  in  Chicago  in  1889  by  Jane  Addams 
and  Ellen  Gates  Starr.  The  founding  of  Hull  House 
rested  upon  the  belief  "that  the  mere  foothold  of  a  house 
easily  accessible,  ample  in  space,  hospitable,  and  tolerant 
in  spirit,  situated  in  the  middle  of  large  foreign  colonies, 
which  so  easily  isolated  themselves  in  American  cities, 
would  be  in  itself  a  serviceable  thing  for  Chicago."  The 
Hull  House  charter  states  as  its  object  "  to  provide  a 
center  for  the  higher  civic  and  social  life,  to  institute  and 
maintain  educational  and  philanthropic  enterprises,  and  to 
investigate  and  improve  the  conditions  in  the  industrial 
district  of  Chicago." 

The  third  American  settlement,  known  as  the  College 
Settlement  and  located  in  New  York,  was  due  to  the  efforts 
of  women  rather  than  men.  Its  beginnings  reach  back  to 
the  interest  of  some  Smith  College  alumniE  in  the  new 


SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT  135 

philanthropic  work  in  England,  and  especially  in  Toynbee 
Hall.    A  house  was  taken  on  Rivington  Street,  New  York, 
in  1889,  with  Jean  G.  Fine  as  head  worker.    In  the  spring 
of  1890,  the  College  Settlements  Association  was  organ- 
ized, with  chapters  in  Wellesley,  Smith,  Vassar  and  Bryn 
Mawr.    This  Association  made,  for  a  time,  annual  appro- 
priations to  the  College  Settlement  of  New  York,  the 
College  Settlement  of  Philadelphia,   Denison  House  of 
Boston,  and  Locust  Point  Settlement  of  Baltimore.   Later, 
it  established  fellowships  for  women  desiring  to  study 
social  problems  in  the  settlements.   In  1917,  the  widening 
interests  of  the  Association  were  indicated  in  a  change  of 
name.     It  then   became   the   Intercollegiate   Community 
Service   Association.     It    now   has   chapters    in   twenty 
women's  colleges,  and  sub-chapters  in  over  forty  girls' 
schools.     In  addition  to  the  activities  previously  enumer- 
ated, the  Association  conducts  semi-annual  conferences  at 
the  various  colleges,  arranges  observation  trips  and  visits 
to  social  agencies  for  undergraduates,  and  advises  students 
in  developing  community  work  in  the  summer  in  their 
home  towns. 

The  fourth  of  the  American  settlements  was  established 
in  Boston  in  1891  by  Professor  William  J.  Tucker  of 
Andover  Theological  Seminary.  It  was  known  as  Andover 
House  until  1895,  at  which  time  it  was  given  the  name 
South  End  House.  Robert  A.  Woods,  who  has  been  from 
the  beginning  the  head  of  the  House,  was  another  of  those 
who  received  his  inspiration  from  a  brief  residence  in 
Toynbee  Hall.    A  circular,  issued  in  1891,  stated  the  pur- 
poses of  South  End  House  in  these  words :   "  The  House 
is  designed  to  stand  for  the  single  idea  of  resident  study 
and  work  in  the  neighborhood  where  it  may  be  located. 
......     The  whole  aim  and  motive  is  religious,  but  the 

method  is  educational  rather  than  evangelistic.    A  second, 


136  SOCIAL  WORK 

though  hardly  secondary  object.     .....     will  be  to 

create  a  center,  for  those  within  reach,  of  social  study, 
discussion  and  organization." 

Somewhat  different  was  the  history  of  the  Henry 
Street  Settlement  established  in  1893  on  the  East  Side  of 
New  York  City.  Miss  Lillian  D.  Wald,  moved  by  the 
conditions  surrounding  a  sick  woman  upon  whom  she  had 
called,  proposed  with  Miss  Mary  M.  Brewster  "  to  move 
into  the  neighborhood  to  carry  on  voluntary  nursing  and 
to  contribute  our  citizenship  to  what  seemed  to  be  an  alien 
group  in  a  so-called  democratic  country."  For  a  time  these 
two  nurses  lived  at  the  College  Settlement.  Later  they 
rented  the  top  floor  of  a  tenement  house  and  finally  took 
the  house  at  265  Henry  Street.  In  addition  to  the  usual 
settlement  activities,  the  Henry  Street  Settlement  main- 
tains a  District  Nursing  Service  in  Manhattan  and  the 
Bronx,  with  several  First  Aid  rooms,  a  number  of  Con- 
valescent and  Fresh  Air  Homes  in  the  country,  a  Milk 
Dispensary,  and  follow-up  work  from  school,  hospital, 
asylum  and  dispensary. 

Our  story  would  be  incomplete  without  at  least  men- 
tion of  the  many  institutional  churches  and  other  religious 
centers  such  as  Chicago  Commons,  Morgan  Memorial  in 
Boston  and  Salvation  Army  citadels  in  many  cities.  Since 
most  of  these  have  definite  denominational  affiliation,  it  is 
natural  that  their  work  should  be  colored  by  the  sectarian 
connection  These  centers  represent  at  their  best  an  effort 
to  socialize  religion.  At  their  worst  they  are  an  effort 
to  attach  this  form  of  social  work  to  the  church  simply  to 
strengthen  it  as  an  institution. 


SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT  137 

THE  SCOPE  OF  WORK 

We  have  already  indicated  in  a  scattered  way  many  of 
the  activities  of  the  social  settlements.  Perhaps  it 
will  be  well  at  this  point  to  bring  them  together  in  a 
summary  fashion,  so  that  the  scope  of  their  work  may  be 
more  evident. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  function  of  the  settlements 
has  been  educational.  There  have  been  classes  in  English 
and  civics  for  foreigners,  classes  in  child  hygiene  for 
mothers,  in  home  economics  for  young  girls,  in  manual 
training  for  boys,  and  in  art  and  music  for  those  with  these 
special  interests.  Second  only  to  educational  work  has 
been  the  recreational.  Usually  there  is  a  gymnasium,  and 
frequently  outdoor  playgrounds  as  well.  Provisiort  is 
made  for  clubs,  both  for  adults  and  children.  There  are 
boy  scout  troops  and  girls'  camp-fires.  There  are  dances, 
entertainments,  pageants  and  picnics. 

A  somewhat  different  service  has  been  the  housing  and 
correlating  of  various  social  agencies  operating  in  the 
neighborhood  of  a  given  settlement.  Often  the  settlement 
house  is  the  district  office  of  a  Charity  Organization 
Society  or  a  Visiting  Nurses'  Association.  Frequently 
it  furnishes  a  room  for  the  holding  of  clinics,  and  acts  as  a 
branch  of  the  city  library.  In  other  ways  it  usually  under- 
takes to  make  itself  a  genuine  center  of  neighborhood  life. 
It  is  frequently  the  headquarters  of  Neighborhood  Im- 
provement Associations,  and  the  place  for  the  holding  of 
political  meetings.  All  this  is  based  upon  the  theory  that 
people,  even  in  great  cities,  live  for  the  most  part  in  neigh- 
borhood groups,  and  that  these  neighborhoods  need  some 
definite  center  for  their  common  activities. 

Still  another  function  has  been  the  carrying  on  of 
investigations.  Closely  related  to  this  has  been  the  political 


138  SOCIAL  WORK 

activity  of  the  settlements,  directed  toward  the  securing  of 
reform  legislation  in  city  councils  and  State  legislatures. 
Along  with  these  has  gone  the  training  of  social  workers, 
some  to  be  voluntary  helpers,  others  to  take  up  their  resi- 
dence at  the  settlement  and  devote  their  entire  time  to  it 
and  its  administration.  But  not  only  has  the  settlement 
been  a  training  ground  for  future  social  workers,  it  has 
been  an  educational  institution  in  a  much  broader  sense. 
It  has  been  a  means  of  bringing  knowledge  about  "how  the 
other  half  lives  "  to  the  well-to-do.  In  turn,  it  has  doubt- 
less brought  to  the  "  submerged  tenth  "  a  more  adequate 
appreciation  of  their  fellow  citizens  of  the  middle  class,  so 
that  even  though  it  originated  as  a  manifestation  of  bour- 
geois benevolence,  it  has  made  a  definite  contribution  to  the 
democratic  movement. 

OUTGROWTHS  AND  ALLIES  OF  THE  SETTLEMENTS 

There  have  been  numerous  outgrowths  of  the  settle- 
ment movement,  only  a  few  of  which  can  be  mentioned  here. 
First  of  all,  as  a  definite  part  of  the  movement,  came  the 
organization  of  the  National  Federation  of  Settlements. 
Influenced  at  least  in  part  by  this,  there  followed  the  Play- 
ground and  Recreation  Association  of  America,  War 
Camp  Community  Service,  and  Community  Service  Incor- 
porated. Less  definitely  connected  with  the  settlements, 
but  undoubtedly  influenced  by  them,  has  been  the  growth 
of  University  Extension,  both  in  England  and  America. 
Indeed,  many  of  the  activities  of  the  settlements  have  been 
taken  over  or  displaced  by  this  "  carrying  the  University 
to  the  people "  through  short  courses,  lectures,  corre- 
spondence instruction,  boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  etc.,  etc. 
Somewhat  akin  to  University  Extension,  but  professedly 


SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT  139 

more  democratic,  are  the  Workers'  Educational  Associa- 
tion of  Great  Britain  and  the  Labor  Colleges  established 
in  Boston,  New  York,  Baltimore,  and  other  Ameri- 
can cities. 

Even  more  definitely  growing  out  of  the  settlements 
has  been  the  development  of  the  public  school  as  a  social 
center.  This  appears  to  have  had  its  beginning  in  Roches- 
ter, New  York,  in  1907.  In  that  year,  one  school  was 
especially  equipped  for  the  various  activities  of  the  social 
center.  This  was  so  successful  that  the  following  year  six- 
teen schools  were  used  as  Neighborhood  Club  Houses, 
open  not  only  evenings,  but  Sunday  afternoons  as  well. 
These  centers  have  carried  on  almost  every  activity  that 
is  to  be  found  in  the  social  settlements.  They  have  even- 
ing classes,  all  sorts  of  recreational  activities,  art  exhibits, 
lectures,  entertainments,  gymnasiums,  playgrounds.  In 
Rochester,  they  have  the  cooperation  of  the  Dental  Asso- 
ciation, Health  Department  and  Art  Gub. 

The  most  rapid  development  of  social  centers  in  the 
public  schools  seems  to  have  taken  place  in  Wisconsin  and 
California,  where  provision  has  been  made  for  this  purpose 
by  state  law.  Clarence  Arthur  Perry  reported  in  1913  that 
the  movement  had  spread  definitely  to  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  cities,  and  that  seventy-one  of  them  reported 
nearly  twenty-one  thousand  paid  workers;  over  five 
hundred  school-houses  were  used  for  polling  places,  nearly 
five  hundred  for  political  meetings,  over  three  hundred  for 
exhibits,  and  over  six  hundred  for  motion  pictures. 

A  development  very  much  like  the  wider  use  of  the 
school  plant  is  illustrated  by  the  small  parks  and  field 
houses  established  by  the  various  Park  Commissions  in 
Chicago.  But  still  more  interesting  has  been  the  develop- 
ment of  community  buildings  in  rural  districts.  In  many 


i4o  SOCIAL  WORK 

agricultural  communities,  the  school  house  has  long  been 
the  center  of  whatever  activities  were  carried  on  in  com- 
mon, but  relatively  little  use  was  made  of  it,  and  no  special 
provision  was  made  for  any  but  the  routine  pedagogical 
work.  But  within  the  last  few  years,  a  large  number  of 
rural  schools  have  been  equipped  to  serve  the  various 
purposes  of  a  community  center. 

In  addition  to  using  the  school  as  a  social  center,  there 
has  been  a  growing  interest  in  separate  community  build- 
ings in  small  towns  and  country  districts.  In  1919,  the 
office  of  Farm  Management,  of  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  made  a  study  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty-six  such  buildings  scattered  over  forty  states. 

The  latest  outgrowth  of  the  movement,  which  was  long 
represented  by  the  settlements  alone,  is  the  social  unit 
experiment  in  Cincinnati.  In  1916,  there  was  founded  the 
National  Social  Unit  Organization,  whose  purpose  was 
stated  to  be  this :  "  To  promote  a  type  of  democratic  com- 
munity organization  through  which  the  citizenship  as  a 
whole  can  participate  directly  in  the  control  of  community 
affairs,  while  at  the  same  time  making  constant  use  of  the 
highest  technical  skill  available." 

For  the  purpose  of  making  a  three-year  experiment  and 
demonstration,  the  organization  selected  the  Mohawk- 
Brighton  District  in  Cincinnati.  The  four  features  of  the 
Social  Unit  Organization  as  it  was  finally  developed  in 
the  Mohawk-Brighton  District  are  enumerated  as  follows  : 

I.  The  Citizens  Council  of  thirty-one  members,  chosen 
by  local  Block  Councils,  which  are  in  turn  elected  by 
residents  of  the  blocks,  every  one  of  either  sex  over  eigh- 
teen years  of  age  residing  in  the  block  having  the  right  to 
vote  for  the  Block  Councils.  It  is  estimated  that  each  of 
the  thirty-one  blocks  includes  a  population  of  approxi- 
mately one  hundred  families  or  five  hundred  people. 


SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT  141 

2.  The  Occupational  Council,  composed  at  present  of 
the  elected  representatives  of  seven  skilled  groups  serving, 
although  not  necessarily  resident,  in  the  district.     The 
Occupational  Council  is  elected  by  group  councils  organized 
in  the  following  skilled  groups:  physicians,  nurses,  recre- 
ational workers,  teachers,  social  workers,  ministers  and 
trade  unionists. 

3.  The  General  Council,  which  has  full  control  over  all 
neighborhood  programs,  made  up  of  the  members  of  the 
Citizens    Council    and    the    Occupational    Council    sit- 
ting together. 

4.  The  Council  of  Executives,  consisting  of  the  three 
executives  of  the  three  councils  above  named. 

This  whole  movement  is  so  very  new  that  it  is  difficult 
to  tell  precisely  what  it  has  accomplished.  Neverthe- 
less, in  the  report  of  the  evaluating  committee,  Edward  T. 
Devine  expresses  the  following  opinion :  "  I  have  no 
doubt,  from  my  observations  and  from  the  interviews 
which  I  have  had  with  workers,  residents,  outside  friends 
and  critics,  that  the  Social  Unit  has  added  substantially  to 
the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  the  residents  of  the 
district ;  that  it  has  led  to  more  efficient  and  discriminating 
relief,  to  more  thorough  and  constructive  diagnosis  of  the 
needs  of  families  in  trouble;  that  it  has  prompted  neigh- 
borliness  and  sociability;  that  it  has  made  the  ordinary 
family  residing  in  the  district  more  hospitable  to  visitors 
who  come  with  a  helpful  purpose,  and  more  discriminating 
as  to  the  probable  effect  of  sanitary  and  social  measures 
brought  forward  for  their  benefit  I  cannot  discover  that 
these  results  have  been  secured  at  a  disproportionate  cost. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  members  of  the  staff  have 

worked  with  enthusiasm  and  unflagging  energy  to  promote 
a  democratic  working  organization,  and  that  they  have 


H2  SOCIAL  WORK 

obtained  a  gratifying  response.  Whether  the  new  habits 
are  sufficiently  ingrained  and  the  new  associations  are  suffi- 
ciently well  grounded  to  be  permanent  can  be  ascertained 
only  as  external  support  is  diminished  or  v/ithdrawn." 

There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  bourgeois  opposition  to 
the  Social  Unit  scheme  on  the  ground  of  its  socialistic 
tendencies  and  its  similarity  to  the  much  berated  Soviets. 
It  is  feared  that  there  is  here  a  potential  substitute  for 
existing  political  government,  and  for  existing  voluntary 
social  agencies. 

Whatever  else  may  be  true,  the  Social  Unit  has  a  funda- 
mentally democratic  character,  which  is  well  described  in 
the  same  report  to  which  reference  has  just  been  made. 
"  The  unique  feature  of  the  plan  seems  to  be  that  its 
founders  and  supporters  are  not  trying  to  '  put  over  '  any- 
thing except  what  they  announce.  They  are  interested  in 
health,  education,  religion,  morals,  good  citizenship  and 
other  concrete  aims,  but  only  secondarily.  They  are 
primarily  and  persistently  interested  in  developing  a  plan  by 
which  people  may  understand,  as  the  result  of  their  own 
experience,  thinking,  and  exchange  of  views,  what  degree 
and  kind  of  health,  education,  recreation,  etc.,  are  desirable ; 
and  through  which  they  can  put  into  operation  means  of 
securing  these  desirable  ends  for  themselves.  They  recog- 
nize that  in  order  to  secure  such  results,  skilled  expert 
service  is  essential,  and  that  when  the  people  decide  what 
they  want,  the  experts  must  be  called  in  to  decide  on  the 
basis  of  their  own  knowledge  and  experience  how  to  secure 
those  results;  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  measures  and 
instruments  proposed  by  the  experts  must  be  so  far  in- 
telligible to  and  acceptable  by  the  citizens  as  to  win 
their  approval." 

Throughout  the  course  of  the  development  of  neigh- 


SETTLEMENT  MOVEMENT  143 

borhood  and  community  work,  from  the  founding  of 
Toynbee  Hall  in  London  to  the  Social  Unit  in  Cincinnati, 
there  have  been  manifest  certain  pretty  definite  tendencies. 
There  has  been  a  gradual  decrease  of  benevolent  uplift  and 
a  gradual  increase  of  neighborhood  organization  for  self- 
expression.  There  is  less  philanthropy  to  disadvantaged 
neighborhoods  and  more  arousal  of  whole  communities 
to  their  common  tasks.  Through  it  all  we  see  the  slow 
growth  of  professional  service  in  the  employ  of  demo- 
cratically organized  groups. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 
The  Settlements 

Addams,  Jane :   Twenty  Years  at  Hull  House.    New  York :    Mac- 

millan,  1914. 
Henderson,   Chas.   R. :  Social  Settlements.     New   York:    Lentilhon, 

1899- 

Knapp,  John  M. :  The  Universities  and  the  Social  Problem.  Lon- 
don: Rivington  Percival,  1895. 

Picht,  Werner:  Toynbee  Holland  the  English  Settlement  Movement. 
London :  G.  Bell,  1914. 

Reason,  W. :  University  and  Social  Settlements.  London :  Me- 
thuen,  1898. 

Wald,  Lillian  D. :  The  House  on  Henry  Street.    New  York :  Holt, 

I9I5- 

Woods,  Robert  A.,  and  Kennedy,  Albert  J.:  Handbook  of  Settle- 
ments.   New  York:   Charities   Publication  Committee,   1911. 
National  Federation  of  Settlements.     Proceedings,  1911 — 
Reports  of  various  settlements,  e.g.,  South  End  House,  Boston ;  Chi- 
cago Commons,  Chicago;  Greenwich  House,  New  York;  Hiram 
House,  Geveland ;  Neighborhood  House,  Louisville ;  Irene  Kauff- 
man  Settlement,  Pittsburgh. 

Allies  and  Outgrowths  of  the  Settlements 

Amos,  A.,  and  Hough.  W.  W.:  The  Cambridge  Mission  to  South 
London.  Cambridge:  Macmillan  &  Bowes,  1904. 


144  SOCIAL  WORK 

Coit,  Stanton:  Neighbourhood  Guilds.  London:  Swan  Sonnen- 
schein,  1891. 

Manson,  John :  The  Salvation  Army  and  the  Public.  London :  Rut- 
ledge,  1906. 

Perry,  Clarence  Arthur:  Wider  Use  of  the  School  Plant.  New 
York:  Survey  Associates,  1913. 

Ward,  Edward  J. :  The  Social  Center.    New  York :  Appleton,  1913. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education.  Bulletin  No.  84,  1919.  "  The  Univer- 
sity Extension  Movement." 

U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture.  Bulletin  No.  825,  1920.  "Rural 
Community  Buildings  in  the  United  States." 

National  Social  Unit:  1919  Conference  Proceedings  (pamphlets); 
Survey,  Nov.  15,  1919,  Sept.  I,  1920;  National  Municipal  Review, 
Sept,  1920. 

Dinwiddie,  Courtenay :  Community  Responsibility.  A  Review  of  the 
Cincinnati  Social  Unit  Experiment.  New  York:  School  of 
Social  Work,  1922. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT 

IN  all  the  phases  of  nineteenth  century  humanitarian- 
ism  emphasis  was  laid  on  the  importance  of  dealing 
effectively  with  the  children.  Charity  organization 
societies,  settlements  and  most  other  agencies  saw  in  the 
children  the  possibilities  of  "constructive  philanthropy." 
And  there  was  also  a  group  of  societies  which  were  devoted 
primarily,  if  not  exclusively,  to  the  protection,  care  and 
training  of  children. 

The  need  of  social  work  for  children  lay  in  the  same 
social  disorganization  that  gave  rise  to  the  other  nineteenth 
century  movements.  The  casualties  of  industry  deprived 
children  earlier  and  more  frequently  of  their  parents.  The 
mobility  and  anonymity  of  industrial  society  meant  that 
orphans  were  frequently  left  among  strangers.  Low 
wages  and  simplification  of  processes  drew  children  into 
the  factories.  The  employment  of  mothers  was  followed  by 
improper  feeding  and  lack  of  moral  supervision. 

CARE  OF  SPECIALLY   NEEDY   CHILDREN 

A  few  orphan  asylums  were  established  by  the  early 
Christian  Church.  The  number  grew  after  the  commercial 
revolution  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries;  it 
was  further  augmented  after  the  reformation,  and 
increased  rapidly  after  the  industrial  revolution.  Most  of 
the  early  modern  institutions  were  maintained  by  the 
Catholic  Church,  but  the  Protestants  too  had  a  consid- 
erable number,  and  in  both  cases  one  of  the  dominant 
motives  was  the  desire  to  have  children  brought  up  in  the 
particular  faith  of  the  founders.  This  religious  motive 

10  145 


146  SOCIAL  WORK 

has  continued  to  the  present  day,  but  it  has  been  yielding 
in  relative  emphasis  first  to  the  middle-class  humanitarian- 
ism,  and  more  recently  to  an  interest  in  the  child  for  his 
own  sake  as  a  present  and  prospective  member  of 
the  community. 

The  first  children's  institution  in  America  was  con- 
nected with  the  Ursuline  convent  in  New  Orleans.  The 
immediate  occasion  for  its  opening  was  a  massacre  by  the 
Natchez  Indians  in  1729,  which  left  many  orphans  in 
Louisiana.  In  1738  the  celebrated  preacher,  George 
Whitefield,  established  the  Bethesda  Orphan  House  in 
Savannah.  These  appear  to  have  been  the  only  pre- 
revolutionary  children's  agencies  in  this  Country.  But 
after  1800  the  number  of  orphanages  increased  rapidly, 
reaching  75  by  1850  and  600  by  1890.  In  1910  Dr. 
Hastings  H.  Hart  estimated  that  there  were  100,000 
children  in  such  institutions. 

Naturally  there  has  been  great  variation  in  the  equip- 
ment and  management  of  these  orphanages  and  "  children's 
homes."  Especially  during  the  first  half  or  three-quarters 
of  the  century  were  they  of  the  type  described  as  "  congre- 
gate." That  is,  a  considerable  number  of  children,  from 
50  to  2000,  were  brought  together  in  a  single  institution, 
frequently  under  a  single  roof.  They  commonly  slept  in 
great  dormitories  or  barracks  and  ate  in  immense  dining 
rooms.  Their  lives  were  governed  by  rather  rigid 
schedules;  individuality  was  suppressed,  and  the  whole 
atmosphere  tended  to  be  one  of  monotonous  routine.  Such 
institutions  were  rather  properly  named  "  asylums." 

But  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  century  and  since  1900 
there  has  been  a  growing  number  of  institutions  on  the 
"cottage  plan."  The  children  live  in  relatively  small 
groups  and  experience  something  approximating  normal 
family  life.  Attention  is  given  to  their  individual  needs 


CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT  147 

and  capacities.  Diets  are  more  varied.  Education  and 
recreation  occupy  most  of  the  children's  time,  while 
institution  housekeeping  is  left  largely  to  paid  helpers. 
Privacy  is  made  possible  by  single  rooms  or  very 
small  dormitories. 

One  of  the  most  notorious  of  the  older  institutions  is 
Girard  College  in  Philadelphia.  In  1831  Stephen  Girard 
left  $6,000,000  under  conditions  which  have  not  only  made 
the  institution  self-sufficient  but  have  caused  the  endow- 
ment to  increase  to  something  like  $30,000,000.  This  will 
specified  that  "  as  many  poor,  white,  male  orphans,  be- 
tween the  ages  of  six  and  ten  years,  as  the  said  income  shall 
be  adequate  to  maintain,  shall  be  introduced  into  the  college 
as  soon  as  possible."  Such  orphans  were  required  to  be 
legally  surrendered  to  the  "  college "  before  they  could 
be  admitted.  They  were  to  be  kept  until  the  age  of  fourteen 
or  not  later  than  eighteen  and  then  indentured.  By  1890 
the  number  of  boys  in  the  institution  had  grown  to 
about  1500. 

At  the  opposite  pole  of  institutional  planning  is  the 
New  York  Orphanage  at  Hastings-on-Hudson.  Here  200 
children  are  divided  into  small  groups,  each  living  in  a 
separate  cottage.  Around  the  different  cottages  will  be 
found  flower  beds,  chicken  coops  and  pets.  Nearby  will  be 
found  vegetable  gardens,  beehives,  rabbit  hutches,  stables, 
etc.  The  children  are  encouraged  to  carry  on  such  enter- 
prises according  to  their  individuality.  The  institution 
lacks  the  painful  orderliness  indoors  and  out  which  is 
visible  in  many  institutions,  yet  it  is  well  organized  and 
efficiently  managed. 

After  1850  an  increasing  number  of  people  began  to 
have  serious  doubts  as  to  the  wisdom  of  bringing  large 
bodies  of  children  together  in  orphan  asylums  or  children's 
homes,  and  there  gradually  grew  up  systems  of  placing 


i48  SOCIAL  WORK 

needy  children  in  private  homes.  The  first  organization 
in  America  to  adopt  "placing-out "  as  a  definite  policy 
was  the  New  York  Children's  Aid  Society,  which  was 
founded  in  1853.  Its  first  circular  sets  forth  both  the  pur- 
poses and  the  methods  of  work : 

"  This  society  has  taken  its  origin  in  the  deeply  settled 
feeling  of  our  citizens  that  something  must  be  done  to  meet 
the  increasing  crime  and  poverty  among  the  destitute 
children  of  New  York.  Its  objects  are  to  help  this  class 
by  opening  Sunday  meetings  and  industrial  schools,  and 
gradually,  as  means  shall  be  furnished,  by  forming  lodging 
houses  and  reading  rooms  for  children  and  by  employing 
paid  agents,  whose  sole  business  shall  be  to  care  for  them. 
.....  We  hope,  too,  especially,  to  be  the  means  of 
draining  the  city  of  these  children,  by  communicating  with 
farmers,  manufacturers,  or  families  in  the  country,  who 
may  need  such  employment.  When  homeless  boys  are 
found  by  our  agents,  we  mean  to  get  them  homes  in  the 
families  of  respectable  persons,  and  to  put  them  in  the  way 
of  an  honest  living." 

Again  and  again  reports  of  the  society  speak  of  "  emi- 
gration "  as  "  the  best  remedy  for  juvenile  pauperism." 
The  first  "  emigrant  party  "  consisted  of  forty-six  boys 
and  girls  who  were  taken  to  a  small  town  in  Michigan  and 
distributed  by  methods  suggested  in  the  following  excerpts 
from  the  journal  of  the  society. 

"  At  the  close  of  the  sermon  the  people  were  informed 
of  the  object  of  the  Children's  Aid  Society.  It  met  with 
the  cordial  approbation  of  all  present,  and  several  promised 

to  take  children Monday  morning  the  boys  held 

themselves  in  readiness  to  receive  applications  from  the 

farmers There  was  a  rivalry  among  the  boys 

to  see  which  first  could  get  a  home  in  the  country,  and 
before  Saturday  they  were  all  gone." 


CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT  149 

In  1883  there  was  organized  in  Illinois  a  Children's 
Home  Society  with  the  following  simple  plan :  "  A  central 
office  at  Chicago,  with  a  state  superintendent ;  districts  in- 
cluding 6  to  25  counties,  with  district  superintendents; 
local  advisory  boards  in  important  towns  throughout  the 
state  to  report  needy  children  and  to  assist  in  finding  homes 
and  supervising  children ;  a  small  receiving  home  for  the 
brief  temporary  care  of  children  awaiting  placement"  This 
plan  of  organization  has  been  copied  in  28  other  states. 

Since  then  the  child-placing  idea  has  spread.  In  some 
places  like  Boston  it  has  almost  displaced  the  institutional 
care  of  needy  children.  But  the  present  methods  of  this 
work  are  very  different  from  the  "  emigrant  parties  "of 
the  fifties;  today  the  children  are  handled  as  individuals. 
Not  every  child  for  whom  application  is  made  is  received ; 
instead,  their  own  home  ties  are  preserved  wherever  pos- 
sible. After  acceptance,  each  child  is  studied  by  physician, 
psychologist  or  psychiatrist  and  social  worker.  Pros- 
pective homes  are  studied  carefully,  and  children  are  placed 
"  on  probation  "  until  it  can  be  seen  whether  or  not  they 
and  the  foster  homes  are  mutually  adapted.  Adoption  takes 
place  rather  rarely  and  only  after  a  considerable  waiting 
period.  Children  in  foster  homes  are  carefully  super- 
vised, and  to  make  this  possible  they  are  placed  within 
limited  areas. 

A  somewhat  different  type  of  agency  is  represented 
by  the  societies  for  prevention  of  cruelty  to  children  and 
humane  societies.  These  grew  out  of  organizations  which 
began  with  the  effort  to  prevent  cruelty  to  animals.  Some 
of  the  societies  still  do  both  kinds  of  work,  but  in  the  main 
the  children's  work  has  broken  off  from  the  older  organi- 
zations. The  first  of  these  strictly  children's  agencies  was 
the  New  York  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Children,  founded  in  1874. 


ISO  SOCIAL  WORK 

"  The  society  was  formed  to  rescue  children  from 
vicious  and  immoral  surroundings  and  to  prosecute 
offenders,  to  prevent  the  cruel  neglect,  beating  or  other 
abuse  of  children,  to  prevent  the  employment  of  children 
for  mendicant  purposes  or  in  theatrical  or  acrobatic  per- 
formances, and  for  the  enforcement  of  all  laws  for  the  pro- 
tection of  minors  from  abuse." 

Parallel  with  the  growth  of  these  private  organizations 
has  been  the  development  of  public  child-caring  agencies. 
Before  the  nineteenth  century  the  only  public  provision  for 
needy  children  was  in  almshouses  and  through  the  out- 
door relief  system  which  was  brought  over  from  England. 
There  was  also  some  supervision  of  indenture,  but  for  the 
most  part  specialized  work  for  children  under  public 
authority  was  entirely  lacking. 

The  public  care  of  children  in  the  United  States  seems 
to  have  begun  with  the  establishment  of  municipal  orphan 
asylums;  one  was  opened  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  in  1794, 
and  one  in  Philadelphia  in  1820.  After  the  middle  of  the 
century  a  number  of  states  authorized  the  establishment 
of  county  children's  homes.  This  movement  begam  in 
Ohio  in  1866,  where  the  system  grew  rapidly  until  in  1901 
there  were  51  county  homes  sheltering  2250  children.  The 
law  intended  the  uee  of  a  placing-out  system  in  connection 
with  these  institutions,  but  this  seems  to  have  been  ignored 
for  the  most  part.  The  example  of  Ohio  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  Indiana  and  Connecticut,  and  to  a  lesser  degree 
by  other  states. 

In  marked  contrast  to  the  county  homes  are  the  state 
schools  established  in  Michigan,  in  1873,  and  subsequently 
in  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Rhode  Island  and  several  other 
states.  The  plan  was  to  assemble  all  destitute  children 
who  became  public  charges  in  a  central  institution  from 
which,  as  soon  as  possible,  they  should  be  placed  out  into 


CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT  151 

families.  On  the  whole,  these  state  school  systems,  which 
Homer  Folks  has  described  as  "  the  distinctively  American 
contribution  to  public  systems  of  child  saving,"  have 
functioned  successfully. 

It  was  really  in  Massachusetts  that  the  first  state  school 
for  destitute  children  was  established,  through  the  transfer 
to  Monson  in  1866  of  "  pauper  children  "  in  the  other  two 
state  almshouses.  In  1867  the  State  Board  of  Charity 
employed  an  agent  to  visit  the  children  who  had  been  in- 
dentured from  the  state  almshouses  and  reform  schools. 
From  this  has  grown  the  Division  of  Child  Guardianship 
of  the  Department  of  Public  Welfare,  through  which  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  does  a  regular  child- 
placing  work.  Similar  development  has  subsequently 
taken  place  in  New  Jersey,  West  Virginia  and  other  states. 

Another  and  much  more  recent  form  of  state  aid  to 
needy  children  has  been  the  so-called  "  mother's  pension." 
The  first  scheme  of  this  sort  was  developed  in  Missouri  in 
1911,  and  so  rapidly  did  the  idea  spread  that  by  1919 
similar  laws  had  been  enacted  in  39  states.  The  purpose 
and  nature  of  these  "  mothers'  pensions  "  are  indicated 
by  the  Illinois  "  funds  to  parents  act,"  adopted  in  191 1. 

"If  the  parent  or  parents  of  such  dependent  or  neg- 
lected child  are  poor  and  unable  to  properly  care  for  the 
said  child,  but  are  otherwise  proper  guardians  and  if  it  is 
for  the  welfare  of  such  child  to  remain  at  home,  the  court 
may  enter  an  order  finding  such  facts  and  fixing  the 
amount  of  money  necessary " 

CARE  OF  WAYWARD  CHILDREN 

A  hundred  years  ago  children  caught  violating  the  law 
were  treated  much  as  their  elders.  They  were  tried  in  the 
ordinary  courts,  and  if  found  guilty  were  sentenced  to  jail 
or  workhouse.  In  many  of  these  prisons  conditions  were 


152  SOCIAL  WORK 

fearfully  bad  even  for  adults;  for  children  they  were 
almost  certain  to  do  harm  rather  than  good.  Agitation 
started  by  John  Howard  and  other  prison  reformers  led 
not  only  to  improvement  of  the  correctional  institutions  for 
adults,  but  to  the  founding  by  philanthropists  of  private 
institutions  for  delinquent  boys  and  girls. 

Among  the  earliest  of  these  "  juvenile  reformatories  " 
in  America  were  the  New  York  House  of  Refuge,  founded 
in  1824,  the  Boston  House  of  Reformation  dating  from 
1826,  and  the  Philadelphia  House  of  Refuge  founded  in 
the  same  year.  The  New  York  House  of  Refuge  grew  out 
of  the  efforts  of  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Pauper- 
ism, which  reported  in  1819  concerning  the  Belle vue 
prison,  "  Here  is  one  great  school  of  vice  and  desperation; 
with  confirmed  and  unrepentant  criminals  we  place  these 
novices  in  guilt — these  unfortunate  children  from  ten  to 
fourteen  years  of  age,  who  from  neglect  of  parents,  from 
idleness  or  misfortune,  have  been  doomed  to  the  peniten- 
tiary by  condemnation  of  law."  The  first  step,  then,  was 
the  removal  of  youthful  offenders  to  special  institutions 
maintained  by  private  charity. 

The  largest  institution  of  this  class  is  the  New  York 
Catholic  Protectory,  founded  in  1863.  It  has  always 
been  administered  on  the  congregate  plan,  with  as  high  as 
200  children  in  a  single  dormitory,  but  withal  its  wards 
appear  to  be  well  cared  for.  The  teaching  of  trades  has 
always  been  stressed,  and  in  recent  years  the  Protectory 
has  established  a  placing-out  agency. 

Perhaps  the  most  famous  of  these  private,  or  semi- 
public,  institutions  for  wayward  children  is  the  George 
Junior  Republic,  established  at  Freeville,  New  York,  in 
1894.  The  innovation  of  a  large  measure  of  self-govern- 
ment, while  startlingly  radical  to  the  "  old  school  "  of 
reformatory  officials,  has  justified  itself  in  practise  here 


CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT  153 

and  lias  been  imitated  in  numerous  other  institutions  both 
public  and  private. 

The  first  state  institution  for  delinquent  children  was 
the  Lyman  School  at  Westboro,  Massachusetts,  which  was 
opened  in  1848.  This  was  followed  by  similar  state 
institutions  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Maine,  Connecti- 
cut, and  ultimately  in  nearly  every  state  in  the  Union.  The 
character  of  these  early  reform  schools  is  thus  described 
by  Dr.  Hastings  H.  Hart. 

"  Many  of  the  juvenile  reformatories  were  at  first,  in 
reality,  juvenile  prisons,  with  prison  bars,  prison  cells, 
prison  garb,  prison  labor,  prison  punishments  and  prison 
discipline  generally.  It  was  recognized  as  a  legitimate  part 
of  the  purpose  of  the  institution  to  inflict  upon  the  child 
punishment  for  his  wrong-doing,  adjusted  according  to  the 
supposed  ill  desert  of  the  culprit,  and  this  idea  was 
considered  to  be  not  inconsistent  with  the  effort 
at  reformation." 

The  school  opened  at  Lancaster,  Ohio,  in  1856,  intro- 
duced a  different  type  which  has  since  been  copied  in  many 
states.  It  was  "  on  the  cottage  plan,"  the  object  being  to 
inject  more  of  the  features  of  family  life,  to  encourage 
self-control  in  the  boys  and  to  separate  them  into  grades. 
In  the  later  schools  for  delinquent  boys  and  girls  complete 
elementary  and  secondary  school  systems,  industrial 
training,  organized  recreation  and  sometimes  a  measure  of 
self-government  have  come  to  occupy  a  large  place  in  the 
reformation  of  wayward  youth. 

A  later  development  in  correctional  work  for  children 
has  been  the  introduction  of  parole  or  conditional  release. 
In  most  cases  children  are  committed  to  correctional  insti- 
tutions for  the  remainder  of  their  minority,  but  instead  of 
being  turned  suddenly  back  into  the  outside  world,  they 
are  more  frequently  sent  out  on  parole  before  attaining 


154  SOCIAL  WORK 

majority.  The  granting  of  parole  depends  on  progress 
made  in  the  institution  and  on  the  existence  of  conditions 
outside — job,  place  to  live,  etc. — which  indicate  that  the 
boy  or  girl  is  likely  to  "  get  along."  During  the  period  of 
parole  certain  conditions  as  to  conduct  are  imposed  and 
supervision  is  maintained  either  from  the  institution  or 
through  some  state  office  through  correspondence  and  the 
visits  of  a  parole  officer. 

Still  more  recent  is  the  development  of  probation  and 
the  juvenile  court.  The  first  probation  law  was  enacted  in 
Massachusetts  in  1878,  but  the  first  separate  juvenile  court 
was  established  in  Chicago  in  1899,  As  distinguished  from 
parole,  probation  means  the  care  of  the  child  otherwise 
than  in  an  institution,  and  in  lieu  of  being  confined  at  all. 
The  machinery  of  supervision  is,  however,  much  the  same, 
except  that  it  usually  operates  directly  from  the  court.  In 
the  beginning  most  of  the  probation  work  was  done  by 
private  agencies  and  individuals,  but  more  and  more  it  has 
been  given  over  to  public  officers,  especially  since  the  de- 
velopment of  "the  juvenile  court" 

Among  the  main  features  of  the  juvenile  court  system 
as  it  has  developed  in  the  United  States  may  be  noted  the 
following:  (i)  Separate  hearings  for  children's  cases, 
very  often  before  a  judge  chosen  for  this  specific  purpose. 
(2)  Informal  or  chancery  proceedings,  growing  out  of  the 
fact  that  the  child  is  no  longer  regarded  as  one  who  has 
committed  a  crime  for  which  he  must  be  punished.  Instead 
of  prosecution,  the  purpose  of  the  juvenile  court  procedure 
is  to  determine  whether  the  child  is  in  need  of  the  special 
care  and  guardianship  of  the  state  and  to  apply  the  remedies 
best  calculated  to  remedy  his  condition.  (3)  Regular  pro- 
bation service  both  for  investigation  as  an  aid  to  the  court 
and  for  supervision  after  a  child  has  been  declared  a  ward 
of  the  state.  (4)  Detention  separate  from  adults,  either 


CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT  155 

t 

in  jivenile  detention  homes  or  with  private  families.  (5) 
Special  court  and  probation  records,  both  legal  and  social. 
(6)  Provision  for  mental  and  physical  examinations. 

CARE  OF  HANDICAPPED  CHILDREN 

Until  fairly  recent  times  the  blind,  deaf-mutes,  feeble- 
minded and  epileptic  were  either  neglected  or  treated  indis- 
criminately along  with  all  sorts  of  other  needy  folk.  The 
education  of  the  blind  was  first  put  on  a  solid  basis  by 
Valentin  Haiiy,  an  eighteenth  century  Frenchman.  In 
the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century  numerous  private 
institutions  were  established,  and  now  nearly  every 
American  state  makes  public  provision  for  the  education  of 
blind  children  either  in  special  classes  or  in  separate  insti- 
tutions. From  being  beggars  and  almshouse  inmates  for 
life,  the  blind  have  been  gradually  enabled  to  take  their  part 
in  the  community  life  along  with  the  rest  of  us. 

As  early  as  1570  Pedro  de  Ponce,  a  Spanish  monk, 
taught  four  deaf  and  dumb  pupils  to  speak,  thus  demon- 
strating that  these  handicapped  folk  had  capacities  beyond 
those  of  the  idiots  with  whom  they  had  often  been  classed. 
From  Spain  the  idea  of  educating  deaf-mutes  spread  to 
France  and  England  whence  it  was  brought  to  America. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  blind,  we  have  some  private  institu- 
tions, and  nearly  every  state  provides  for  deaf-mutes 
either  in  special  classes  of  the  public  school  system  or  in 
separate  institutions.  Thus  they  too  are  enabled  to  share 
our  common  life. 

Perhaps  most  striking  of  all  has  been  the  change  of  atti- 
tude toward  the  mentally  deficient.  Barr,  in  his  "  Mental 
Defectives,"  tells  us  of  their  exposure  as  infants  at  Sparta, 
their  employment  as  jesters  in  medieval  courts,  the  super- 
stitious reverence  which  gave  them  in  the  middle  ages  the 
name  "  les  enfants  du  bon  Dieu,"  and  a  very  different 


156  SOCIAL  WORK 

attitude  in  Luther  and  Calvin,  who  denounced  them  as 
"  Filled  with  Satan."  In  many  cases  they  were  not  dis- 
tinguished from  the  insane,  and  were  treated  as  danger- 
ous criminals. 

The  notion  of  educating  the  feeble-minded  may  be  said 
to  date  from  the  effort  of  Itard  in  Paris  to  train  the  "  wild 
boy  of  Aveyron."  This  boy  was  described  as  "  unac- 
customed to  our  food,  and  as  selecting  his  aliment  by  the 
sense  of  smell;  lying  flat  on  the  ground,  and  immersing 
his  chin  in  the  water  to  drink ;  tearing  all  sorts  of  garments, 
and  trying  constantly  to  escape ;  walking  often  on  all  fours ; 
fighting  with  his  teeth;  giving  few  marks  of  intelligence; 
having  no  articulate  language,  and  even  appearing  devoid 
of  natural  speech;  complaisant  and  pleased  at  receiving 
caresses."  Itard  was  greatly  disappointed  at  his  inability 
after  five  years  to  educate  this  boy,  but  he  did  discover  and 
publish  valuable  data. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  num- 
ber of  private  institutions  were  opened  in  France,  Switzer- 
land, Germany  and  England.  Not  distinguishing  between 
different  grades  of  mental  deficiency,  many  of  the  pioneers 
were  oversanguine  as  to  the  possibility  of  training  their 
charges.  Thus  Saegert's  school  in  Berlin  was  called  an 
"  Institution  for  the  Cure  and  Education  of  Idiots."  How- 
ever, this  was  a  valuable  reaction  against  previous  attitudes 
toward  the  feeble-minded,  because  it  has  since  been  found 
that  some  of  these  unfortunates  can  profit  from  a  measure 
of  education. 

The  pioneer  in  America  seems  to  have  been  Samuel  G. 
Howe,  Director  of  the  Perkins  Institution  for  the  Blind  at 
Watertown,  Massachusetts.  His  interest  having  been 
aroused  through  three  blind  children  who  were  also  feeble- 
minded, Dr.  Howe  got  the  matter  before  the  legislature, 
which  appointed  an  investigating  committee  in  1846.  This 


CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT  157 

committee's  report  "  showed  a  thorough  investigation  into 
the  nature,  causes  and  various  forms  of  idiocy,  and  gave 
a  full  statement  of  conditions  and  treatment  of  514  idiots 
in  various  almshouses  and  private  families  in  Massachu- 
setts." The  result  was  an  appropriation  for  an  experi- 
mental school  to  be  conducted  by  Dr.  Howe,  and  in  1850 
the  incorporation  of  the  Massachusetts  School  for  Idiotic 
and  Feeble-minded  Children. 

Numerous  private  institutions  followed,  but  the  most 
important  development  in  America  has  been  the  gradual 
assumption  by  our  state  Governments  of  responsibility  for 
the  care  and  training  of  the  feeble-minded.  The  public 
provision  has  included  not  only  "  asylums  "  and  state  train- 
ing schools,  but  also  special  classes  in  the  public  schools  and 
supervision  of  mental  defectives  who  are  capable  of  being 
employed  in  agriculture  or  industry. 

The  scientific  study  of  the  feeble-minded  received  what 
is  probably  its  greatest  stimulus  at  the  very  end  of  the  last 
century  in  the  elaboration  by  Binet  and  Simon  in  France 
of  a  scale  for  measuring  intelligence.  This  scale  has  since 
been  revised  by  its  authors  and  by  several  others,  notably 
Goddard  in  New  Jersey  and  Terman  in  Cali  f ornia.  While 
no  scheme  of  rating  the  mental  capacity  of  human  beings 
is  wholly  satisfactory  even  to  those  who  have  devised  and 
used  it,  enough  has  been  learned  through  the  use  of  these 
tests  to  justify  the  classification  of  the  feeble-minded  into 
several  grades.  An  idiot  is  defined  as  "  a  person  so  deeply 
defective  in  mind  from  birth,  or  from  an  early  age,  that 
he  is  unable  to  guard  himself  against  common  physical 
dangers."  His  "  mental  age  "  is  two  years  or  less.  The 
middle  grade  or  imbecile  is  "  one  who,  by  reason  of  mental 
defect  existing  from  birth,  or  from  an  early  age,  is  unable 
to  earn  his  own  living,  but  is  capable  of  guarding  himself 
against  common  physical  dangers."  His  "  mental  age  "  is 


158  SOCIAL  WORK 

from  three  to  seven.  The  highest  grade,  known  in 
America  as  the  "  moron,"  is  defined  as  "  one  who  is  capable 
of  earning  a  living  under  favorable  circumstances,  but  is 
incapable  from  mental  defect,  existing  from  birth,  or  from 
an  early  age,  (a)  of  competing  on  equal  terms  with  his 
normal  fellows;  or  (b)  of  managing  himself  and  his 
affairs  with  ordinary  prudence."  His  "  mental  age  "  is 
eight  to  twelve. 

Public  attention  to  the  mentally  and  physically  handi- 
capped has  passed  beyond  the  stage  of  superstition  and 
neglect.  Custodial  care  in  institutions  is  the  second  stage, 
and  beyond  this  the  treatment  of  the  most  helpless  cannot 
go.  Others  whom  it  seems  unwise  to  leave  "  at  large  " 
lest  they  fall  into  pauperism  or  crime  or  bring  into  the 
world  defective  offspring  may  be  happy  and  useful  in 
institutional  colonies.  But  through  specialized  treatment 
more  and  more  of  these  unfortunates  are  being  enabled  to 
participate  in  our  common  life.  Special  education,  voca- 
tional training  and  guidance  enable  most  of  the  blind  and 
the  deaf-mutes  to  become  successful  and  respected  members 
of  the  community.  Registration  and  supervision  render 
it  not  only  safe  but  wise  for  certain  mental  defectives  to 
mingle  with  "  normal  "  folk. 

CONTROL  OF  CHILD  LABOR 

"The  beginning  of  the  present  (nineteenth)  century 
found  children  of  five,  and  even  three  years  of  age,  in 
England,  working  in  factories  and  brickyards;  women 
working  underground  in  mines  harnessed  with  mules  to 
carts,  drawing  heavy  loads ;  found  the  hours  of  labor  what- 
ever the  avarice  of  individual  mill-owners  might  exact, 
were  it  thirteen,  or  fourteen,  or  fifteen;  found  no  guards 
about  machinery  to  protect  life  and  limb;  found  the  air  of 


CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT  159 

the  factory  fouler  than  language  can  describe,  even  could 
human  ears  bear  to  hear  the  story." 

In  these  words  Francis  Walker  described  a  condition 
which  was  never  quite  so  bad  in  America,  but  which  has 
commanded  the  attention  of  philanthropists  and  public 
spirited  citizens  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  down  to  the 
present  time. 

Most  active  in  the  agitation  concerning  child  labor  in 
the  United  States  have  been  the  child  labor  committees, 
labor  unions,  women's  trade  union  leagues,  consumers' 
leagues,  women's  dubs  of  various  kinds  and  state  labor 
bureaus.  The  National  Child  Labor  Committee  was 
organized  in  1904  and  has  carried  its  investigations  and 
propaganda  into  almost  every  state  of  the  Union.  It  makes 
studies  of  conditions  affecting  the  employment  of  children, 
undertakes  to  educate  the  public  through  pamphlets,  public 
addresses  and  exhibits,  and  tries  to  secure  legislation.  In 
many  states  there  are  local  child  labor  committees  asso- 
ciated with  the  national  organization;  to  them  much  of  the 
success  in  controlling  child  labor  is  due.  Next  to  the  child 
labor  committees  in  influence  and  effectiveness  should 
probably  be  placed  the  consumers'  leagues.  Here  the 
method  has  been  that  of  organizing  consumers  in  order 
through  their  united  efforts  to  insist  upon  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  products  under  satisfactory  conditions. 

In  response  to  such  agitation  there  grew  up  during  the 
nineteenth  century  in  Great  Britain  a  code  of  factory  laws 
regulating,  among  other  things,  the  labor  of  children.  In 
the  United  States  most  of  the  child  labor  laws  have  been 
enacted  since  1895.  At  the  present  time  every  state  regu- 
lates in  some  way  the  employment  of  minors,  and  several 
states  have  child  labor  laws  that  seem  fairly  complete  and 
rather  well  enforced.  These  laws  in  general  deal  with  (a) 
the  age  below  which  employment  is  forbidden,  this  age 


160  SOCIAL  WORK 

being  fourteen  in  a  growing  number  of  states;  (b)  ages 
between  which  employment  can  be  secured  only  under  cer- 
tain conditions  including  frequently  the  securing  of  a  cer- 
tificate, these  ages  being  commonly  fourteen  to  sixteen; 

(c)  the  hours  of  labor  of  children,  frequently  forbidding 
night  work  and  often  limiting  the  hours  to  eight  per  day ; 

(d)  the  requirement  of  a  minimum  attendance  at  school 
and  sometimes  educational  tests.    Such  laws  vary  greatly 
from  state  to  state;  hence  the  efforts  to  standardize  them. 
Twice  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  enacted  a 
Federal  child  labor  law,  but  each  time  the  courts  have 
declared  it  to  be  unconstitutional  on  the  ground  of  being  an 
unwarranted  invasion  of  states'  rights. 

OTHER  PHASES  OF  THE  CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT 

There  are  many  other  phases  of  the  child  welfare 
movement  of  the  nineteenth  century;  to  most  of  them 
space  forbids  more  than  passing  reference.  Among  the 
most  important  are  the  developments  in  the  field  of  educa- 
tion. Starting  often  under  private  auspices,  new  schools 
and  new  methods  have  in  general  after  the  experimental 
and  demonstration  stages  been  taken  over  by  the  public. 
Thus  Jefferson's  "  free  schools  for  pauper  children  "  have 
become  the  public  elementary  schools  of  Virginia;  the 
denominational  academies  scattered  over  the  country  a 
generation  ago  have  become  or  given  way  to  the  public  high 
schools.  Private  initiative  has  produced  school  lunches, 
clothing  for  poor  children,  school  nursing  and  often  the 
much-needed  improvements  in  physical  equipment. 
Among  the  more  important  organizations  to  be  considered 
in  this  connection  are  the  parent-teachers'  associations, 
mothers'  clubs,  cooperative  educational  associations,  child 
study  clubs,  etc. 

Another  group  of  efforts  might  be  classed  together 


CHILD  WELFARE  MOVEMENT  161 

under  the  head  of  "child  hygiene."  Here  we  have  in 
mind  milk  funds,  baby-saving  campaigns,  baby  clinics, 
compulsory  vaccination,  medical  and  dental  examinations, 
instruction  in  hygiene  in  the  schools,  organized  and 
supervised  recreation,  the  physical  examination  of  school 
children,  etc.  As  noted  in  the  chapter  on  correlation  of 
social  agencies,  there  is  a  host  of  organizations  at  work  in 
this  field,  but  more  and  more  the  functions  involved  are 
being  performed  by  nation,  state  and  municipality. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  recent  developments  has 
been  the  effort  to  unify  or  at  least  to  correlate  legislation 
and  public  agencies  dealing  with  children.  This  began 
officially  with  the  appointment  in  1911  of  the  Commission 
to  Codify  and  Revise  the  Laws  of  Ohio  Relative  to 
Children,  which  was  followed  in  1913  by  the  enactment  of 
a  so-called  children's  code.  Since  that  time  definite  action 
toward  the  comprehensive  study  of  legislation  affecting 
children  has  been  made  in  thirty  other  states.  In  all  this 
movement  the  most  potent  single  factor  has  probably  been 
the  Federal  Children's  Bureau  exercising  its  influence 
especially  through  investigations  and  various  kinds  of 
publicity. 

Throughout  the  last  hundred  years  of  child  welfare 
work  two  tendencies  seem  to  stand  out  above  all  others. 
One  is  the  giving  way  of  a  more  or  less  sentimental  interest 
in  "  child-saving "  before  the  gradual  rise  of  scientific 
study  and  provision  for  all  children.  The  other  is  the 
gradual  taking  over  by  the  public  service  of  methods  and 
agencies  which  were  experimentally  developed  and  demon- 
strated under  private  auspices.  Here  as  in  other  fields  of 
social  work,  we  seem  to  see  the  passing  of  charity  and  the 
growth  of  professional  public  service. 
ii 


162  SOCIAL  WORK 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Payne,  George  Henry :  The  Child  in  Human  Progress.  New  York : 
Putnam,  1916. 

History  of  Child-Saving  in  the  United  States.  Report  of  the  com- 
mittee on  the  history  of  child-saving  work  to  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Corrections,  1893.  Boston:  G.  H. 
Ellis,  1893. 

Folks,  Homer:  The  Care  of  Destitute,  Neglected  and  Delinquent 
Children.  New  York:  Macmillan,  1902. 

Hart,  Hastings  H. :  Preventive  Treatment  of  Neglected  Children. 
New  York:  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1910. 

Mangold,  George  B. :  Problems  of  Child  Welfare.  New  York :  Mac- 
millan, 1914. 

Brace,  Charles  L. :  The  Dangerous  Classes  of  New  York  and  Twenty 
Years'  Work  Among  Them.  New  York:  Wynkoop  &  Hallen- 
beck,  1880. 

Adams,  T.  S.,  and  Sumner,  Helen  L. :  Labor  Problems.  New  York : 
Macmillan,  1905.  (Chap.  2  deals  with  child  labor.) 

Barr,  Martin  W. :  Mental  Defectives,  Their  History,  Treatment  and 
Training.  Philadelphia:  Blakiston,  1910,  Chap.  2. 

Wiltse,  Sarah  E. :  "  Preliminary  SI  etch  of  the  History  of  Child-study 
in  America."  Pedagog.  Seminary,  3,  189-212  (1894). 

White  House  Conference  on  the  Care  of  Dependent  Children.  Wash- 
ington: Gov't  Printing  Office,  1909. 

Annotated  Subject  Index  and  Order  List  of  Books  and  Pamphlets, 
including  Government  Reports,  on  Maternity  and  Child  Welfare 
in  England  and  Scotland.  A.  R.  C.  ion.  Aug.,  1920.  Wash- 
ington :  Amer.  Red  Cross,  1920. 

Children's  Bureau  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Labor. 
Various  publications. 

See  reports  of  various  children's  agencies,  e.g.,  New  York  Children's 
Aid  Society,  Massachusetts  Society  for  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Children,  Illinois  Children's  Home  Society,  New  England 
Home  for  Little  Wanderers,  New  York  Catholic  Protectory, 
New  Jersey  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians,  National  Child 
Labor  Committee,  National  Society  for  the  Study  and  Preven- 
tion of  Infant  Mortality  (now  American  Child  Hygiene  Associa- 
tion), Cooperative  Education  Association  of  Virginia. 


PART  III 
THE  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  BACKGROUND  OF  THE  ENGLISH  POOR 

LAW 

THE  modern  development  of  public  relief  of  the  poor 
seems  to  have  taken  place  at  about  the  same  time  in  several 
countries  of  northern  Europe.  In  France,  Germany, 
Switzerland  and  England  systems  for  the  care  of  the  poor 
either  by  the  state  or  under  its  direction  were  initiated 
early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  during  or  immediately  fol- 
lowing the  Protestant  Reformation.  We  shall,  here,  devote 
our  attention  largely  to  the  development  of  the  English 
Poor  Law,  partly  because  it  has  had  a  more  steady  growth 
and  partly  because  it  has  influenced  social  work  in  America 
much  more  than  have  the  Continental  systems. 

The  contributions  of  the  English  Poor  Law  to  modern 
social  work  may  be  summarized  under  three  heads.  First, 
it  represents  the  development  of  a  technique  of  relief- 
giving,  including  organization  and  administration  and 
methods  of  dealing  with  those  in  need.  To  be  sure,  the 
techniques  of  today  alre  by  no  means  exclusively  drawn 
from  the  English  Poor  Law,  nor  have  the  experiments  of 
the  English  officials  been  uniformly  successful.  Neverthe- 
less, a  very  real  and  important  contribution  has  been  made 
here  toward  the  development  of  a  technique. 

Second,  the  English  Poor  Law  represents  the  develop- 
ment of  a  consciousness  of  national  responsibility  for  deal- 
ing with  the  problems  of  poverty.  This  began  with  the 

165 


166  SOCIAL  WORK 

effort  of  the  state  to  attach  the  individual  to  the  local  parish, 
and  to  repress  begging.  From  these  it  went  on  to 
define  and  regulate  the  relief  which  was  actually  ad- 
ministered by  the  units  of  local  government.  Later,  it 
organized  a  national  system  of  relief.  Finally,  it  led  to  old 
age  pensions,  and  health  and  unemployment  insurance  as 
parts  of  a  national  program  to  diminish  the  amount  of 
poverty  and  misery. 

The  third  contribution  of  the  English  Poor  Law 
system,  as  we  interpret  it,  is  the  development  of  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  futility  of  mere  relief.  There  is  some 
disagreement  as  to  whether  the  English  system  has  actually 
worked  out  to  this  conclusion.  But  the  Poor  Law  report 
of  1909  and  the  passing  of  such  laws  as  those  just  men- 
tioned seem  to  be  pretty  clear  evidence  that  out  of  the 
four  hundred  years  of  the  English  Poor  Law,  there  has 
actually  come  a  recognition  of  the  inadequacy  of  charity 
and  the  necessity  for  devising  preventive  and  construct- 
ive measures. 

MEDIEVAL   FIXITY 

In  order  to  understand  the  origin  of  the  English  Poor 
Law,  it  is  necessary  to  anticipate  briefly  the  discussion  of 
medieval  charities  which  is  to  follow.  Speaking  in  very 
general  terms,  people  in  the  middle  ages  were  pretty 
definitely  fixed  as  to  geographical  situation,  occupation 
and  social  status.  They  lived  for  the  most  part  in  little 
neighborhood  groups  where  everyone  knew  everyone  else, 
and  where  in  time  of  accident  or  other  misfortune  there 
was  no  need  for  organized  charity  because  neighborliness 
manifested  itself  in  the  form  of  mutual  aid. 

Not  only  did  people  actually  live  in  a  state  of  fixity 
and  relative  isolation,  but  it  was  generally  assumed  that 
this  was  the  only  proper  way  to  do.  The  laws  of  the  early 
kings  of  England  throw  interesting  light  on  this  notion 


BACKGROUND  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW     167 

that  everyone  belonged  in  a  definite  place  and  should  "  stay 
put."  Our  Saxon  ancestors  required  every  peasant  who 
had  no  home  of  his  own  to  find  some  householder  who 
should  be  responsible  for  him.  Without  such  surety,  he 
would  not  be  regarded  as  a  member  of  the  community  nor 
entitled  to  its  protection.  Similar  laws  appeared  in  the 
tenth  century  in  the  time  of  King  Aethelstan,  and  in  the 
eleventh  century  in  the  reign  of  King  Canute. 

These  laws  seem  to  give  expression  to  a  popular  feeling 
that  the  normal  thing  was  for  each  individual  to  have  a 
definite  place  in  some  primary  group,  a  manor,  parish, 
guild,  or  religious  community.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the 
earlier  middle  ages  the  numbers  of  detached  persons  re- 
mained relatively  small,  and  it  was  perfectly  natural  that 
there  should  be  a  continual  effort  to  preserve  the  status 
quo.  But  as  the  middle  ages  advanced  the  wanderers 
multiplied  and  it  was  necessalry  to  provide  measures  for 
their  care  in  time  of  misfortune. 

ROYAL  ALMS 

The  first  attention  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings  to  the 
poor  was  not  public  relief  as  we  use  that  term,  but  rather 
the,  casual  alms  of  a  great  overlord.  For  example,  Bede 
tells  the  following  story  of  King  Oswald.  He  was  about 
to  dine  sumptuously  from  a  silver  dish  of  dainties  one 
Sunday,  when  the  servant  who  attended  to  relief  of  the 
poor  told  him  that  there  were  many  persons  outside  the 
gate  who  were  begging  alms.  Thereupon  the  king  ordered 
the  contents  to  be  carried  to  the  beggars.  King  Aethelstan 
ordered  the  distribution  of  much  alms  to  the  poor.  He 
ordered  each  of  his  Reeves  every  year  to  redeem  one  penal 
slave,  and  to  furnish  the  necessary  food  for  one  poor 
Englishman.  King  Alfred,  we  are  also  told,  bestowed 
alms  in  largesses  on  both  natives  and  foreigners  of  all 


168  SOCIAL  WORK 

countries.  In  making  these  gifts  to  the  poor,  the  kings 
of  England  were  acting  as  individuals  rather  than  as  rep- 
resentatives of  the  state.  They  were  doing  just  exactly 
the  sort  of  thing  that  nobles  and  prelates  were  all  in- 
dulging in. 

REPRESSIVE  MEASURES 

Among  the  earliest  official  acts  with  reference  to  the 
poor,  and  logically  antecedent  to  the  poor  laws,  were  the 
repressive  measures  affecting  labor.  As  a  result  of  the 
Black  Death  about  1347,  the  number  of  laborers  was  con- 
siderably decreased,  and  the  survivors  demanded  higher 
wages.  Hence,  Parliament,  being  composed  largely  of 
landlords,  was  interested  in  restoring  the  old  status  in 
which  they  had  the  laborers  under  their  fhumb.  They  were 
face  to  face  with  a  novel  problem  in  which  they  had  to  take 
some  definite  account  of  the  landless  class.  They  met  the 
situation  with  the  Statute  of  Laborers,  23  Edward  III, 
1349.  The  asking  of  alms  by  "  valiant  beggars  "  and  the 
giving  of  alms  to  them  were  forbidden.  Also,  "  every  man 
and  woman,  of  whatsoever  condition,  free  or  bond,  able 
in  body,  and  within  the  age  of  three  score  years,  not  living 
in  merchandise,  nor  exercising  any  craft,  nor  having  of  his 
own  whereof  he  may  live,  nor  proper  land  about  whose 
tillage  he  may  himself  occupy,  and  not  serving  any  other, 
shall  be  bound  to  serve  him  which  shall  him  require,  and 
take  only  the  wages,  livery,  meed  or  salary  which  were 
accustomed  to  be  given  in  the  places  where  he  oweth  to 
serve."  This  put  the  laborer  who  stood  out  for  higher 
wages  in  the  same  class  with  the  professional  beggar. 

This  law  was  very  difficult  to  enforce,  and  it  was 
followed  by  other  and  still  harsher  measures :  25  Edward 
III,  1350-1 ;  34  Edward  III,  1360.  Still  many  refused  to 
work;  vagrancy  and  crime  increased,  and  in  1381  Wat 


BACKGROUND  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW     169 

Tyler's  rebellion  broke  out.  In  the  Statute  of  1388  (12 
Richard  II ),  the  attempt  was  made  to  bind  the  poor  to  the 
place  of  their  birth.  After  providing  for  persons  able  to 
work,  it  was  directed  "  that  beggars  impotent  to  serve 
shall  abide  in  the  cities  and  towns  where  they  be  dwelling 
at  the  time  of  the  proclamation  of  this  statute."  This  is 
the  first  legislative  mention  of  the  "  impotent  poor  "  as  a 
distinct  class;  but  no  provision  was  made  for  their  relief; 
they  were  left  to  chance  alms  for  their  support. 

There  is  quite  a  series  of  similar  enactments :  7  Henry 
V;  ii  Henry  VII,  1495;  J9  Henry  VII,  cap.  12,  1503; 
22  Henry  VIII,  1531.  These  measures  mark  a  sharp 
cleavage  between  the  landowning  and  the  landless  classes. 
The  propertied  caste  was  compelled  by  the  scarcity  of  labor 
and  by  the  demonstrations  of  the  unpropertied  to  take 
some  notice  of  the  latter.  The  first  attitude  was  that  of 
hostility,  but  for  economic  reasons  the  rich  could  not  get 
along  without  the  laborers,  hence  some  technique  had  to 
be  found  for  dealing  with  them,  since  the  old  one  had 
broken  down.  It  was  a  very  acute  problem.  These 
"  vagabonds  "  were  going  about  through  the  country  in 
troops,  begging,  or  rather  demanding  and  stealing.  "In  the 
sixteenth  century  the  beggars  became  a  positive  terror  to 
quiet  folk."  The  old  technique  of  winning  salvation  through 
alms  might  do  for  the  "  impotent  poor,"  but  it  was  of  little 
value  in  handling  the  "  valiant  beggars."  The  new  tech- 
nique involved  a  relationship  closely  akin  to  that  of  slavery, 
that  is,  it  was  an  effort  to  return  to  serfdom.  An  effort 
was  made  to  treat  the  laborers  as  property,  but  in  the  six- 
teenth century  this  was  doomed  to  at  least  partial  failure. 
The  landless  class  was  too  strong. 

Such  repressive  measures  as  these  were  by  no  means 
peculiar  to  England.  Don  Ferdinand  IV,  of  Spain, 
ordered,  in  1308,  that  vagrants  were  to  be  driven  from  all 


170  SOCIAL  WORK 

his  cities,  and  if  they  returned  they  were  to  be  flogged. 
Don  Pedro  I  published  a  similar  ordinance  in  1351  against 
all  able-bodied  beggars  and  professional  criminals.  Don 
Juan  I  gave  anyone  the  right  to  compel  a  vagabond  to 
work  for  him  a  month,  giving  him  in  return  only  enough 
to  eat  and  drink.  Later  ordinances  were  still  more  severe. 
Cutting  off  of  ears  and  even  death  were  prescribed  for 
able-bodied  beggars  in  1400  by  Enrique  III.  The  actual 
practice,  however,  was  not  so  severe,  for  largesses  and 
begging  continued  because  public  opinion  supported  them. 

France  also  undertook  to  meet  the  problem  presented 
by  hordes  of  insistent  beggars  by  methods  almost  identical 
to  those  utilized  in  England  and  Spain.  In  1350,  King 
John  ordered  that  all  idlers,  gamblers,  fortune  tellers  and 
beggars  should  leave  the  city  of  Paris  and  the  surrounding 
region  within  three  days.  Failure  to  comply  with  this 
order  was  to  be  punished  by  imprisonment  and  corporal 
punishment.  In  the  case  of  recidivism,  the  offenders  were 
sentenced  to  the  pillory,  branded  on  the  forehead  and 
permanently  banished. 

The  interesting  thing  is  that  these  repressive  measures 
of  the  kings  occurred  at  about  the  same  time  in  those 
countries  of  western  Europe  which  were  beginning 
to  develop  strong  central  governments.  In  addition  to 
endeavoring  to  repress  begging,  the  royal  power  also 
undertook  the  regulation  of  ecclesiastical  and  private 
charities.  Thus,  a  statute  of  Richard  II  in  1388  regulated 
the  revenues  of  the  Church  in  the  interests  of  the  poor.  "  A 
portion  of  the  tithe  had  been  commonly  distributed  by  the 
resident  rector  to  the  poor,  but,  when  a  living  became  part 
of  the  possessions  of  a  monastery,  a  portion  of  the  revenue 
should  be  assigned  to  the  poor,  so  that  they  might  not  lose 
the  alms  formerly  distributed  by  the  rectors." 

A  statute  of  Henry  V,  enacted  in  1414,  recites  numbers 


BACKGROUND  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW     171 

of  abuses  in  the  hospitals  of  that  day  and  required  that  the 
"  ordinaries  should  enquire  of  the  manner  of  the  founda- 
tion of  the  estate  and  governance  of  the  same 

and  upon  that  make  correction  and  reformation." 

Another  activity  of  the  king  in  his  capacity  as  repre- 
sentative of  the  nation,  which  lasted  into  the  fourteenth 
century,  was  the  guardianship  of  the  insane.  This  seems  to 
have  been  essentially  feudal  in  character,  and  may  have 
been  persisted  in  because  the  king  enjoyed  the  revenue 
from  his  wards'  lands.  Sometimes  the  king  would  exempt 
a  hospital  from  taxation ;  sometimes  he  would  grant  special 
privileges.  As  an  example  of  these  last,  we  find  that  King 
John,  in  1204,  conferred  upon  the  lepers  of  Shrewsbury 
the  privilege  of  taking  hand  fulls  of  corn  and  flour  from 
sacks  exposed  in  the  market. 

BREAK-UP  OF  FEUDALISM 

These  various  activities  of  the  early  kings  and  parlia- 
ments are  interesting  and  worthy  of  our  attention  because 
they  must  have  influenced  later  efforts  to  deal  with  the 
problems  of  poverty.  But  it  seems  hardly  likely  that  they 
would  of  their  own  accord  have  developed  into  a  national 
system  of  poor  relief.  The  Poor  Law  came  into  existence 
for  a  number  of  reasons,  chief  among  which,  apparently, 
was  the  economic  disorganization  attendant  upon  the 
growth  of  the  domestic  system  of  industry,  the  enclosures 
of  small  land  holdings  and  the  general  breaking  up  of 
feudalism.  The  economic  changes  which  were  taking  j>lace 
created  social  disorganization,  broke  up  the  old,  relatively 
fixed  order  of  things,  increased  mobility,  and  set  many 
individuals  adrift.  Second  among  the  important  causes  of 
poverty,  at  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  the 
failure  of  the  established  charities.  Third,  we  may  note 
the  series  of  disturbances  connected  with  the  Protestant 


172  SOCIAL  WORK 

Reformation,  including  in  England  the  dissolution  of  the 
monasteries.  Finally,  the  growing  spirit  of  nationalism, 
and,  for  a  time,  the  great  power  of  the  English  sovereign 
contributed  largely  toward  making  poor  relief  a  function 
of  the  state. 

RISE  OF  THE  DOMESTIC  SYSTEM  OF  INDUSTRY 

The  domestic  system,  to  which  reference  has  just  been 
made,  can  be  more  adequately  understood  after  studying 
the  medieval  gilds  which  preceded  it.  However,  it  is 
enough  at  this  point  simply  to  say  that  previously  manu- 
facturing had  been  almost  entirely  done  by  members  of 
craft  gilds  who  were  very  much  under  the  control  of  their 
organizations.  The  most  important  manufacture  for 
England  seems  to  have  been  cloth.  English  merchants 
were  successful  in  their  foreign  trade  largely  by  the  export 
of  woolen  cloth ;  and  because  of  their  success,  accumulated 
a  fund  of  capital  which  they  turned  back  into  the  industry. 
In  order  to  secure  more  cloth  and  to  control  for  their  own 
purposes  the  methods  of  manufacture,  the  "  merchant- 
clothiers"  developed  what  has  come  to  be  called  the 
"  domestic  system."  They  purchased  the  wool  and  gave  it 
out  to  carders  or  combers,  spinners,  weavers,  fullers  and 
others,  who  worked  in  their  home  shops  in  rural  hamlets. 
Apparently,  it  was  necessary  for  the  "  merchant -clothiers  " 
to  have  this  work  done  outside  the  larger  towns,  where  the 
gild  regulations  were  generally  very  irksome.  They  seem 
to  have  secured  the  labor  largely  from  the  unemployed  of 
the  agricultural  districts,  and  obtained  the  necessary  tech- 
nical teaching  from  the  journeymen,  whom  the  restriction 
of  gild  privileges  within  the  towns  had  rendered  dissatisfied 
with  their  prospects.  The  important  thing,  however,  is 
that  the  people  who  were  secured  occupied  an  intermediate 
position  in  the  process  of  cloth  making.  They  received 


BACKGROUND  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW     173 

the  raw  material  from  the  "  merchant-clothiers,"  and  after 
working  it  up,  returned  it  to  them  for  marketing.  Fre- 
quently, if  not  generally,  the  artisans  lived  in  their  own 
homes  in  what  would  now  be  called  garden  cities.  They 
usually  owned  their  own  looms  and  had  their  plots  of 
ground,  on  which  they  cultivated  small  gardens  and  raised 
poultry  and  cows. 

But  evidently  this  situation  was  by  no  means  universal, 
for  as  time  went  on,  some  of  the  "  merchant-clothiers  " 
went  so  far  as  to  own  and  provide  the  artisan's  tools. 
Others  set  up  in  their  own  houses  a  considerable  number  of 
looms,  and  seemed  to  be  well  on  the  way  toward  a  factory 
system  of  production.  It  is  possible  that  the  Industrial 
Revolution  of  the  late  eighteenth  century  might  have  been 
advanced  two  hundred  years,  but  for  legislative  action  such 
as  the  Weavers'  Act  of  1555.  This  same  Act  was  also 
directed  against  some  definite  abuses  on  the  part  of  "  mer- 
chant-clothiers," such  as  acquiring  possession  of  the  looms 
and  letting  them  out  at  unreasonable  rents,  or  reducing  the 
rate  of  pay  for  working  up  the  cloth. 

So  far,  it  would  seem  that  the  establishment  of  the 
domestic  system  must  have  been  advantageous  to  the 
people  whom  it  affected,  rather  than  otherwise.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  did  help  to  absorb  the  surplus  labor  which 
was  being  discharged  from  the  agricultural  estates,  but  at 
the  same  time,  it  gave  rise  to  a  new  sort  of  problem  in  the 
form  of  unemployment. 

With  the  widening  of  the  market,  there  came  an  ex- 
tension and  an  intensification  of  all  the  evils,  due  to  the 
imperfect  coincidence  of  supply  and  demand.  Sometimes 
these  were  due  to  economic  and  sometimes  to  political 
causes.  An  example  of  the  latter  appeared  in  1527-28. 
Wolsey,  in  order  to  gain  a  political  end,  prohibited  trade 
with  The  Netherlands.  There  immediately  arose  a  com- 


i74  SOCIAL  WORK 

plaint  from  the  merchants  that  they  could  find  no  sale  for 
their  wares.  At  the  same  time,  the  clothiers  were  no  longer 
able  to  employ  the  craftsmen,  and  great  numbers  of  men 
were  thrown  out  of  work.  The  people  began  to  rise  in 
rebellion,  especially  in  the  South  and  West.  Wolsey  saw 
himself  compelled  to  yield,  but  not  before  much  suffering 
was  caused. 

ENCLOSURES  OF  FARM  LAND 

Directly  correlated  with  the  industrial  change  from  the 
gild  to  the  domestic  system,  there  was  another  economic 
change  from  a  feudal  system  of  agriculture  to  a  com- 
mercialized type  of  stock  raising.  The  great  demand  for 
wool  and  the  high  prices  offered  by  the  clothiers  made  it 
very  profitable  for  the  English  landowners  to  turn  their 
fields  into  pastures  and  to  raise  sheep  instead  of  grain. 
Now,  in  order  to  accomplish  this  purpose,  they  had  to  upset 
the  entire  feudal  system  of  tillage,  and  in  fact,  the  whole 
round  of  life  of  those  people  who  lived  on  the  great  rural 
estates.  In  an  earlier  time,  the  landlords  had  lived  upon 
their  estates,  parcelling  them  out  in  many  small  tracts  to 
what  were  known  as  "  customary  tenants."  These  tenants 
each  tilled  a  number  of  narrow  strips  in  the  various  com- 
mon fields,  and  grazed  their  flocks  on  the  common 
meadows,  in  return  for  which  they  rendered  specified 
services  on  that  part  of  the  estate  which  the  landlord  re- 
served for  himself. 

In  the  later  middle  ages,  money  payments  came  to  be 
substituted  for  labor  performed  on  the  demesne,  or  the 
lord's  own  part  of  the  estate.  In  turn  the  lord  paid  money 
wages  for  the  work  which  he  required,  and  these  wages 
supplemented  the  income  of  small  tenants.  Now  it  seems 
to  have  been  the  demesne  that  the  owners  first  turned  into 
pasture.  As  a  consequence,  the  small  tenants  lost  a  por- 


• 


BACKGROUND  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW     175 

tion  of  their  income  and  were  sometimes  forced  to  look 
elsewhere  for  a  living.  Moreover,  the  enclosures  threw 
out  of  employment  a  considerable  number  of  agricultural 
laborers.  The  second  step  seems  usually  to  have  been  the 
enclosure  of  the  common  meadows.  The  monopolization 
by  the  lord's  flocks  of  the  common  pasture  furnished  an 
important  cause  of  popular  discontent. 

But  that  which  most  disturbed  the  habits  of  working 
and  of  living  was  the  enclosure  of  the  common  fields. 
Where  each  man  worked  a  number  of  narrow  strips  in  the 
various  fields  of  the  estate,  subject  to  a  common  rotation 
of  crops,  there  was  little  opportunity  for  individual  initia- 
tive or  for  the  improvement  of  agricultural  methods.  The 
arrangement  now  came  to  be  that  each  tenant  occupied  a 
smaller  number  of  fields,  or  perhaps  even  a  single  plot  of 
ground,  and  some  of  these  plots  were  taken  over  by  the 
landlord  for  use  as  pasture.  This  meant  an  almost  violent 
upsetting  of  all  the  habits  of  life,  as  well  as  the  economic 
displacement  of  an  increasing  number  of  tenants. 

This  displacement  came  about  in  a  variety  of  ways. 
Sometimes  it  took  the  form  of  the  violent  ousting  of  the 
occupant,  sometimes  it  was  the  substitution  of  a  short-time 
lease  for  the  customary  holding,  and  sometimes  it  was  a 
refusal  on  the  death  of  one  tenant  to  admit  his  son, 
who  in  earlier  centuries  would  have  been  treated  as  the 
natural  successor. 

Ashley  takes  pains  to  point  out  that  for  the  most  part 
these  enclosures  were  entirely  legal  and  a  perfectly  natural 
procedure;  albeit,  they  did  produce  a  great  deal  of  mal- 
adjustment and  suffering.  According  to  Ashley,  the  land- 
lords were  usually  entirely  within  their  legal  rights  when 
they  forced  out  the  tenants.  The  cultivators  of  the  soil 
had  always  been  dependents  and  held  their  lands  by  the 
will  of  the  lords.  For  centuries  the  lords  knew  no  other 


176  SOCIAL  WORK 

way  of  cultivating  their  land  and  had  no  wish  to  get  rid  of 
their  tenants.  Probably  the  "  customary "  manner  of 
holding  land  was  on  the  point  of  becoming  law  when  a 
change  in  the  economic  situation,  that  is,  the  increasing 
advantage  of  pasture  over  tillage,  prompted  the  lords  to 
fall  back  on  their  old  rights.  At  all  events,  these  important 
displacements  did  take  place  from  about  1470  to  1530,  and 
contributed  largely  to  the  group  of  problems  which  the 
English  Poor  Law  was  designed  to  solve. 

DISMISSAL  AND  ESCAPE  OF  RETAINERS 

It  seems,  moreover,  that  others  than  the  tenants  were 
ejected  and  driven  into  the  groups  of  detached  and  unem- 
ployed persons.  Sir  Thomas  More  mentions  the  dismissal 
of  retainers  by  nobles  who  were  no  longer  able  to  support 
them.  He  speaks  of  great  trains  of  "  idle  and  loitering 
serving  men,"  whom  wealthy  gentlemen  "  carried  about 
with  them  at  their  tails."  "  They  never  learned  any  craft 
whereby  to  get  their  livings.  These  men,  as  soon  as  their 
master  is  dead  or  be  sick  themselves,  be  incontinent  thrust 

out  of  doors Many  times  the  dead  man's  heir  is 

not  able  to  maintain  so  great  a  house  and  keep  so  many 
serving  men  as  his  father  did.  Then  in  the  mean  season, 
they  that  be  thus  destitute  of  service  either  starve  of  hunger 
or  manfully  play  the  thieves."  The  vigorous  action  of 
Henry  VII  and  the  Star  Chamber  in  enforcing  the  law 
against  "  livery  "  must  have  thrown  many  men  of  this  sort 
out  of  service  to  prey  upon  the  public. 

Finally,  we  should  not  fail  to  take  account  of  one  other 
aspect  of  the  breaking  up  of  feudalism.  The  freedom  and 
many  comforts  enjoyed  by  the  persons  residing  in  a  town, 
would  naturally  excite  a  desire  for  similar  enjoyments  in 
the  rural  population,  then  in  state  of  servile  dependence, 
and  possessing  scarcely  any  of  the  comforts  and  few  of 


BACKGROUND  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW     177 

the  conveniences  of  life.  If  a  villein  succeeded  in  acquiring 
a  little  property,  he  was  driven  to  conceal  it,  as,  if  discov- 
ered, it  would  belong  to  his  master;  and  in  order  to  pre- 
serve it  he  would  probably  take  the  first  opportunity  of 
escaping  to  a  town,  where  if  he  could  conceal  himself  from 
the  pursuit  of  his  lord  for  a  year  and  a  day,  he  would  be 
free  forever.  But  emancipation  removed  the  lord's  respon- 
sibility for  the  laborer,  and  cut  the  freedman  loose  from 
his  neighbors  on  the  manor,  and  often  from  his  family. 
Hence  poverty  was  likely  to  become  real  and  relief  neces- 
sary. Many  of  those  who  had  struggled  for  and  asserted 
their  own  freedom,  resorted  to  begging  and  vagabondism, 
and  not  infrequently  to  violence,  whenever  employment  or 
the  means  of  honest  livelihood  was  not  readily  obtainable, 
and  sometimes,  perhaps,  when  it  was. 

DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  MONASTERIES 

Some  historians,  anxious  to  condemn  public  relief 
systems  and  to  defend  ecclesiastical  charities,  have  main- 
tained that  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  by  Henry 
VIII  was  the  chief  cause  of  distress  at  the  time  of  the 
enactment  of  the  first  Poor  Law.  Other  churchmen,  how- 
ever, who  appear  to  be  more  candid,  if  not  better  informed, 
admit  that  the  almsgiving  of  the  monasteries  and  similar 
medieval  institutions  had  failed  utterly  as  a  means  of 
caring  for  the  poor,  and  contributed  largely  to  the  pro- 
fessionalizing of  beggary. 

Fuller,  in  his  "  Church  History,"  printed  in  1656,  after 
lauding  the  hospitality  of  abbeys  as  "  beyond  compare," 
thus  speaks  of  these  institutions :  "  Some,"  he  says,  "  will 
object  that  this  their  hospitality  was  but  charity  mistaken, 
promiscuously  entertaining  some  who  did  not  need  and 
more  who  did  not  deserve  it.  Yea,  these  abbeys  did  but 
maintain  poor  which  they  made.  For  some  vagrants, 
ii 


i?8  SOCIAL  WORK 

accounting  abbey  alms  their  own  inheritance,  served  an 
apprenticeship,  and  afterwards  wrought  journeywork,  to 
no  other  trade  than  begging;  all  whose  children  were,  by 
their  father's  copie,  made  free  of  the  same  company.  Yea, 
we  may  observe  that  generally  such  places  wherein  the 
great  abbeys  were  seated  swarm  most  with  poor  people  at 
this  day,  as  if  beggary  were  entailed  upon  them,  and  that 
laziness  not  as  yet  got  out  of  their  flesh,  which  so  long 
since  was  bred  in  their  bones." 

As  we  shall  see  further  on,  not  only  the  monasteries 
but  the  hospitals  and  the  parochial  relief  had  broken  down 
before  the  passage  of  the  Poor  Law.  In  the  meantime, 
Henry  VIII,  envious  of  the  abbeys'  wealth  and  at  outs 
with  the  Pope,  undertook  to  destroy  the  monasteries. 
What  came  to  pass  through  the  dissolution  was  that  the 
volume  of  poverty  and  vagrancy  was  rendered  more  ap- 
parent. Moreover,  the  burden  of  pauperism  was  in  a  sense 
increased,  for  the  beggars  and  loafers  who  had  previously 
managed  to  get  a  livelihood  by  going  about  from  monas- 
tery to  monastery,  had  become  more  than  ever  troublesome 
to  quiet  folk. 

When  it  is  said  that  the  dissolution  made  the  Poor  Law 
necessary,  what  is  usually  meant  is  that  the  monasteries 
had  previously  furnished  an  adequate  organization  for  the 
relief  of  all  such  distress  as  misfortune  brought  upon  the 
laboring  population,  but  there  seems  to  be  exceedingly 
little  evidence  of  this.  No  matter  how  strongly  we  may 
condemn  the  motives  and  methods  of  the  dissolution,  it  at 
least  had  this  good  result  that  it  abolished  a  number  of 
centers  of  pauperization. 

We  have  seen  how  the  economic  changes,  the  religious 
disturbances  and  the  failure  of  established  charities  cre- 
ated a  very  difficult  situation.  But  these  alone  do  not 
account  for  the  rise  of  a  Poor  Law  and  a  national  system 


BACKGROUND  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW     179 

of  relief.  We  have  accounted  for  the  need  of  something 
new ;  let  us  see  if  we  can  find  a  reason  for  the  state  becoming 
the  agent  for  its  administration. 

GROWTH   OF   NATIONALISM 

Our  clue  to  the  explanation  of  this  last  fact  is  that  the 
Poor  Law  was  simply  one  aspect  of  the  growing  nation- 
alism. Before  the  sixteenth  century,  England  was  much 
less  a  nation  than  from  that  time  on.  Economically,  she 
was  a  group  of  more  or  less  independent  and  self-sufficing 
local  units.  Politically,  there  was  relatively  Irttle  unity. 
The  national  government  was  not  so  strong  nor  did  it 
occupy  so  much  of  men's  attention  as  later  came  to  be 
the  case. 

However,  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  there  had  been  developed  a  "  national  economy  " 
as  distinguished  from  a  merely  "  town  economy."  But  the 
parliamentary  movement  of  the  fourteenth  century  was 
premature.  The  increase  in  the  quantity  of  legislation  was 
not  accompanied  by  an  equal  increase  in  the  control  of  local 
by  central  authorities,  while  the  weak  rule  of  the  Lan- 
castrians and  the  dynastic  feuds  of  the  fifteenth  century 
left  the  towns  pretty  free  to  pursue  their  own  interests.  In 
fact,  economic  development  had  hardly  reached  the  point 
at  which  there  was  urgent  need  for  an  organization  wider 
than  that  of  the  town. 

But  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  medieval  town  system 
gave  way  in  every  direction,  and  its  place  was  gradually 
occupied  by  an  organization  of  trade  and  industry  which 
rested  on  the  wider  basis  of  a  national  state.  The  con- 
stantly increasing  activity  of  parliament  in  enacting  laws 
prescribing  the  methods  of  industry,  and  applicable  to  the 
whole  kingdom,  is  evident  on  every  side.  Frequently,  this 


i8o  SOCIAL  WORK 

legislation  was  passed  in  the  interest  of  the  towns  them- 
selves, as  over  against  the  new  domestic  system  which  was 
developing  in  the  rural  villages.  But  often,  it  seems  to 
have  been  primarily  the  result  of  having  a  stronger  central 
government,  conscious  of  its  own  sphere  of  action.  More- 
over, the  constant  interference  by  and  appeal  to  an 
authority  outside  the  town  must  have  drawn  men's 
thoughts  away  from  the  latter  and  toward  the  nation  as  an 
object  of  attention. 

Some  of  the  other  factors  in  the  development  of 
nationalism  were  the  outcome  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War 
with  France,  the  destruction  of  many  noble  families  in 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  and  the  appeal  which  Henry  VII's 
regime  of  "  law  and  order  "  made  to  the  new  commercial 
and  manufacturing  classes. 

There  were,  at  this  time,  three  other  countries  of 
western  Europe  in  which  a  national  spirit  and  a  strong 
central  government  had  been  developed.  These  were 
France,  Spain  and  Portugal.  The  causes  which  lay  behind 
nationalism  in  these  countries  were  very  similar  to  those 
which  operated  in  the  case  of  England.  But  of  the  three, 
France  was  the  only  one  which,  in  this  period,  introduced 
a  system  of  compulsory  assessment  for  the  relief  of 
the  poor. 

THE    PROTESTANT    REFORMATION 

The  French  effort  in  this  direction  seems  not  to  have 
lasted  long.  But  in  Germany,  where  a  national  conscious- 
ness was  less  definitely  organized,  there  was  a  rapid 
development  of  public  relief  administered  by  local  units  of 
government.  This  fact  suggests  that  in  England  the 
religious  change  was  no  less  important  than  the  political. 
In  fact,  the  Reformation  meant  an  important  change  in 


BACKGROUND  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW     181 

policy  for  all  the  Protestant  countries.  Previously  almost 
all  charity  had  rested  on  the  doctrine  of  the  religious  merit 
of  almsgiving  carefully  and  continually  taught  by  the 
Catholic  Church.  Philanthropy  was  held  to  be  strictly  an 
ecclesiastical  function.  But  amid  the  religious  upheavals 
of  northern  Europe,  it  gradually  became  a  secular  and  a 
civil  affair.  To  be  sure,  the  state  made  use  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical machinery  for  the  administration  of  relief,  but  with 
the  separation  from  Rome  and  a  lessened  emphasis  on  alms 
as  a  means  of  salvation,  the  machinery  slowly  lost  its 
relation  to  the  church.  The  parish  became  a  unit  of  civil 
government,  and  in  general  the  state  assumed  the  position 
formerly  held  by  the  Pope.  Hospitals  that  had  been  relig- 
ious establishments  were  taken  over  by  the  towns  or  by 
other  secular  agencies. 

The  background,  then,  of  the  English  Poor  Law 
consists  first  in  the  important  economic  and  social  changes, 
producing  disorganization  to  an  extent  previously  un- 
known in  that  country.  In  the  second  place,  it  involves 
the  failure  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  of  charity,  which 
will  be  more  adequately  described  in  subsequent  chapters. 
Finally,  it  includes  the  growing  spirit  of  nationalism, 
which  marks  the  sixteenth  century  in  western  Europe. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Ashley,  W.  J. :  An  Introduction  to  English  Economic  History.  Lon- 
don :  Longmans  Green,  1893,  2  vols. 

Chapin,  F.  Stuart:  An  Historical  Introduction  to  Social  Economy. 
New  York:  Century,  1917,  Chapters  12,  13,  17. 

Cheyney  Edward  P. :  An  Introduction  to  the  Industrial  and  Social 
History  of  England.  New  York:  Macmillan,  1020. 

Cunningham,  William :  The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Com- 
merce. Cambridge:  University  Press,  1890-1903.  3  vols. 

Eden,  Frederick  M. :  The  State  of  the  Poor;  or  an  History  of  the 
Labouring  Classes  in  England  from  the  Conquest  to  the  Present 
Period.  London,  1797. 


182  SOCIAL  WORK 

Hayes,  Carlton  J.  IL:  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern 

Europe.    New  York:  Macmillan,  1916,  vol.  I. 
More,  Sir  Thomas :   Utopia.     New  York :  Macmillan,  1895. 
Powers,    G.    W. :    England    and    the    Reformation.    New     York: 

Scribners,  1905. 
Ribton-Turner,   C.  J. :   A  History  of  Vagrants  and  Vagrancy  and 

Beggars  and  Begging.    London :  Chapman  &  Hall,  1887. 
Slater,  Gilbert :  The  Making  of  Modem  England.     Boston,  1913. 
Usher,  A.  P.:  Industrial  History  of  England.     Boston:   Houghton 

Mifilin.   1920. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ENGLISH 
POOR  LAW 

THE  FIRST   POOR  LAW 

Professor  Ashley  regards  the  Act  of  1536  as  the 
beginning  of  the  English  Poor  Laws.  Its  object,  as 
expressed  again  and  again,  was  that  none  should  "  go 
openly  begging."  To  this  end,  the  local  authorities  were 
charitably  to  receive,  and  then  to  "  succor,  find  and  keep  " 
all  the  "  jmpotent  poor  "  belonging  to  their  district.  The 
necessary  means  were  to  be  provided  by  the  collection  of 
alms  in  church  on  every  Sunday,  holiday,  or  festival,  in 
"  common  boxes  "  provided  for  the  purpose.  The  clergy 
were  bidden,  "  as  well  in  their  sermons,  collations,  biddings 
of  the  beads  as  in  time  of  confessions,"  and  at  the  making 
of  wills  or  testaments  of  any  persons,  to  exhort  their  flocks 
to  show  charity. 

The  Act  altogether  forbade  "  common  and  open  doles  " 
on  the  two  grounds  that  the  gathering  together  of  the 
recipients  led  to  the  spread  of  infectious  diseases,  and 
"  that  most  commonly  unto  such  doles  many  persons  resort 
who  have  no  need  of  the  same."  "  No  person  shall 
make  any  common  dole  or  shall  give  any  ready  money 
in  alms  otherwise  than  to  the  common  boxes  and  com- 
mon gatherings." 

In  dealing  with  the  "  valiant  beggars,"  the  Act  was  less 
complete.  In  the  repressive  laws,  which  had  previously 
been  passed,  it  had  been  ordered  that  if  found  begging  they 
should  be  whipped  and  ordered  off  to  their  own  parishes. 
There  was  now  added  a  provision  for  their  benefit,  to  the 

183 


184  SOCIAL  WORK 

effect  that  on  producing  a  testimonial  of  having  been  thus 
whipped  and  sent  on,  they  should  be  given  food  and 
lodging  every  ten  miles.  If  they  loitered  on  the  way,  a 
part  of  the  right  ear  was  to  be  cut  off ;  and  if  they  offended 
again,  they  were  to  suffer  death  as  felons.  If  they  did 
finally  get  home,  there  was  only  the  vague  direction  that 
the  alms  of  the  parish  collected  in  the  "  common  box  "  were 
also  to  be  used  "  for  setting  and  keeping  to  work  the 
able  poor." 

There  are  several  important  features  of  this  Act  of 
1536  which  left  Henry  VIII  with  a  somewhat  better  repu- 
tation than  might  otherwise  be  the  case.  First  of  all,  it 
adds  to  the  merely  repressive  measurescin^  attempt  to  do 
something  positive  for  the  relief  of  the  poor.  Secondly, 
instead  of  merely  confining  begging  to  the  "  impotent 
poor,"  it  lays  down  the  general  principle  that  no  one  shall 
be  permitted  to  beg/  The  care  of  the  destitute  was 
definitely  required,  and  when  this  was  once  understood, 
it  was  a  natural  corollary  to  introduce  a  compulsory  assess- 
ment if  voluntary  contributions  were  not  sufficient. 
Finally,  as  there  was  a  perception  of  the  fact  that  the  able- 
bodied  may  not  always  be  able  to  find  employment,  there 
was  added  the  requirement  that  the  parish  should  furnish 
work  to  the  able-bodied  persons  who  might  be  in  need. 
This  Act  lays  down  the  general  principles  which  governed 
the  subsequent  development  of  the  Poor  Law,  and  may, 
therefore,  be  regarded  as  the  foundation  of  the  national 
system  of  relief  in  England. 

There  must  have  been  a  housing  problem  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  with  which  we  of  the  twentieth  century 
can  well  sympathize.  Curiously  enough,  this  seems  to 
have  arisen  in  part  from  a  law  which  provided  that  every 
cottage  must  have  four  acres  of  land  attached  to  it.  The 
assumption,  apparently,  was  that  this  plot  of  ground  would 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW    185 

provide  the  food  required  by  one  family.  But  it  seems 
that  one  result  of  this  law  was  that  the  supply  of  cottages, 
especially  in  the  villages,  was  never  sufficient  because  the 
yeomen  and  farmers  were  unwilling  to  lose  the  four  acres 
of  land  which  must  be  provided  with  each  new  cottage. 

Therefore,  in  1547,  it  was  enacted  that  the  local 
authorities  should  provide  "  tenantries,  cottages  and  other 
convenient  houses  "  for  the  lodging  of  the  "  impotent." 
These  cottages  were  to  be  built  on  the  common  or  waste 
ground  of  the  community,  provided  the  officers  gained  the 
consent  of  the  lord  of  the  manor. 

But  apparently,  there  was  much  difficulty  in  obtaining 
funds  adequate  for  these  purposes,  and  in  1555,  it  was  felt 
necessary  to  enact  "  that  if  any  person  being  able  to  further 
this  charitable  work  do  obstinately  and  frowardly  refuse  to 
give  help  to  the  poor,  the  parson,  vicar  or  curate,  or  church 
wardens  of  the  parish  shall  gently  admonish  him."  If 
they  failed,  the  bishop  was  to  try  his  persuasive  powers. 
If  he  was  unsuccessful,  it  was  added  in  1563  that  the 
"  obstinate  person  "  was  to  be  bound  over  to  the  Justices 
of  the  Peace  in  rural  districts,  and  to  the  mayors  in  towns 
who  should  have  authority  "  to  sesse,  taxe,  and  lymit  upon 

every  such  obstinate  person according  to  their 

good  discretions,  what  sum  (he)  shall  pay  weekly  towards 
the  relief  of  the  poor  within  the  parish  where  he 
shall  inhabit." 

ELIZABETHAN  LEGISLATION 

It  seems  that  in  spite  of  all  these  efforts  to  compel  pay- 
ment to  the  parish  officials  for  the  relief  of  the  poor 
the  funds  remained  inadequate.  The  church  collectors,  in 
other  words,  were  unsuccessful  and  probably  resented. 
Possibly  it  had  not  been  easy  to  procure  men  willing  to 
undertake  the  collection  and  distribution  of  poor  relief,  so 


i86  SOCIAL  WORK 

in  1572  the  second  of  the  Elizabethan  Poor  Laws  pro- 
vided for  the  appointment  of  collectors  and  overseers  as 
civil  officers  with  power  to  compel  men  to  serve  in  these 
positions  for  one  year,  or  to  forfeit  the  sum  of  ten  shillings. 

None  of  the  laws  previously  passed  had  succeeded 
in  preventing  fraud  and  imposition  by  persons  able  to  sup- 
port themselves.  As  an  effort  to  meet  this  situation,  the 
Act  of  1576  empowered  the  Justices  in  every  county  to 
purchase  or  hire  buildings  to  be  converted  into  houses  of 
correction.  They  were  to  provide  a  stock  of  wool,  hemp, 
flax,  iron,  or  other  stuff  for  the  unemployed,  "  to  the  intent 
that  they  might  be  accustomed  and  brought  up  in  labour 
and  then  not  like  to  grow  to  be  idle  rogues;  and  that 
such  as  be  already  grown  up  in  idleness  and  so  rogues  at 
this  present  may  not  have  any  just  excuse  in  saying  that 
they  can  not  get  any  service  or  work." 

Already  there  had  come  to  be  so  many  different  laws 
relating  to  poverty  and  vagrancy  that  there  was  more  or 
less  confusion  as  to  just  what  the  administrative  officers 
were  supposed  to  do.  Consequently,  there  was  passed  in 
1598,  and  revised  in  1601,  an  organic  act  which  brought 
together  the  various  provisions  relating  to  the  poor.  First 
of  all,  these  acts  divided  the  recipients  of  relief  into  three 
classes — the  able-bodied  poor,  those  unable  to  work,  and 
children.  For  the  first  class,  work  was  to  be  furnished  as 
under  the  law  of  1576,  and  refusal  was  to  be  punished  by 
stocks  or  imprisonment.  For  the  "  impotent  poor,"  main- 
tenance was  provided  in  almshouses.  Unless  they  were 
children  whose  parents  or  grandparents  might  be  com- 
pelled to  support  them,  dependent  children  were  to  be 
cared  for  by  apprenticing  them — the  boys  until  they  were 
twenty-four,  and  the  girls  until  they  were  twenty-one 
or  married. 

The  source  of  income  was  a  tax  to  be  levied  and  col- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW    187 

lectecl  weekly  by  overseers  of  the  poor  from  every  possessor 
of  lands,  houses,  or  tithes  in  the  parish  "  in  such  competent 
sums  as  they  shall  think  fit."  If  one  parish  were  over- 
burdened by  its  poor  rate,  the  other  parishes  of  the  same 
hundred  or  county  were  to  "  rate  in  aid."  It  seems  that  the 
overseers  could  also  draw  upon  two  other  sources  of 
income : — lands  or  money  left  by  charitable  people  for  use 
by  the  poor,  and  fines  for  the  breaking  of  certain  laws. 

As  to  administration,  the  office  of  collector  was  com- 
bined with  that  of  overseer.  For  each  parish  there  were 
a  number  of  overseers,  to  which  group  the  church  wardens 
belonged  ex  officio,  the  remaining  three  or  four  being 
nominated  at  the  vestry  meeting.  However,  the  overseers, 
as  such,  had  no  ecclesiastical  duties,  and  the  fact  that  their 
office  was  coming  to  be  regarded  as  civil  is  shown  by  their 
appointment  by  the  Justices  of  the  Peace,  even  though  their 
nomination  was  made  at  the  vestry  meeting. 

This  law  was  the  core  of  English  poor  relief  until  1834. 
By  some,  it  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  "  a  model  for 
all  time."  But  there  were  those  even  in  the  seventeenth 
century  who  criticized  it  severely.  Thus  complained  Ralph 
Dunning,  who  was  an  overseer  of  a  parish  in  Devon: 
*'  Loose,  idle  persons  clamour  for  relief  when  they  need 
none,  and  if  their  demands  be  not  satisfied  complain  to  the 
J.P's,  who  never  do,  nor  can  do  less  than  order  the  Over- 
seers to  come  before  them  to  answer  and  shew  cause,  etc., 
and  such  Overseers  as  live  far  from  the  J.P.  will  often  give 
the  clamourers  relief  merely  to  save  themselves  a  journey, 
especially  when  they  have  the  wit  to  complain  in  a 
busy  time." 

The  difficulty  seems  to  have  lain,  at  least  partly,  in  the 
fact  that  the  overseer  was  unpaid  and  had  to  make  his 
living  as  a  farmer  or  tradesman.  His  duties  were  alto- 
gether too  extensive  for  an  ordinary  layman,  and  needed 


188  SOCIAL  WORK 

the  detailed  attention  of  a  permanent  official.    As  a  result, 

Dunning  found  that  "  the  charge  of  the  poor is 

nearly  double  what  it  was  thirty  years  since." 

In  1630,  an  interesting  step  was  taken  in  the  direction 
of  unifying  the  relief  system.  A  Royal  Commission  for 
the  Poor  was  appointed,  and  in  the  following  year,  this 
Commission  issued  a  book  of  orders  and  directions  to  the 
Justices  to  insure  the  better  administration  of  the  Poor 
Law.  The  Justices  were  to  report  every  three  months  to 
the  Sheriff,  who  sent  these  reports  through  the  Justices  of 
Assize  to  the  Lords  Commissioners.  If  the  Justices  of  the 
Peace  were  found  negligent,  this  was  to  be  reported  to 
the  King. 

THE  SETTLEMENT  ACT 

The  first  important  alteration  of  the  Law  of  1601  came 
in  1662  in  what  is  known  as  the  Settlement  Act  of 
Charles  II.  It  seems  that  poor  people  were  crowding  into 
parishes  where  relief  was  plentiful  and  easily  secured. 
Moreover,  it  was  true  that  outsiders  who  chanced  to  suffer 
misfortune  in  a  given  community  were  regarded  as  con- 
suming the  means  of  caring  for  the  poor  who  lived  in  the 
parish.  Also,  there  probably  survived  much  of  that 
medieval  feeling  that  every  man  belonged  in  some  par- 
ticular place,  and  should  remain  there.  At  all  events,  the 
mobility  of  the  poor  created  a  problem  which  the  Settle- 
ment Act  undertook  to  solve. 

By  this  law,  the  parish  became  responsible  only  for 
those  who  had  legal  domicile  within  its  limits.  Practically, 
this  legal  residence  was  restricted  to  those  who  were  born 
or  apprenticed  in  the  parish,  although  in  the  first  statement 
of  the  law,  domicile  might  be  acquired  by  proprietorship, 
sojourn,  or  service.  Those  who  did  not  have  legal  residence 
could  be  removed  to  the  parish  to  which  they  belonged, 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW    189 

within  forty  days  of  their  coming  to  the  new  community. 
This  action  was  taken  by  the  Justice  of  the  Peace,  if, 
in  his  opinion,  the  new-comer  was  dependent  or  likely 
to  become  dependent.  Moreover,  any  new  arrival  might  be 
required  to  give  surety  that  he  would  not  become  a  charge 
upon  the  parish. 

In  one  of  its  aspects,  this  law  seems  to  have  been  an  at- 
tempt to  bind  the  laboring  classes  to  the  soil.  At  all  events, 
it  did  restrict  the  mobility  of  labor  and  thereby  hindered 
the  growth  of  industry,  caused  unemployment,  and 
probably  increased  the  number  of  dependents.  Not  until 
1795  was  there  any  substantial  change  in  the  rigidity  of 
the  Settlement  Law.  In  that  year,  expulsion  from  the 
parish  was  made  permissible  only  when  the  person  was 
actually  dependent,  and  not  then  if  the  Justice  of  the 
Peace  held  the  person  unfit  to  travel.  Lallemand,  and  other 
Catholic  historians,  make  much  of  the  hardships  imposed 
by  the  Settlement  Act,  in  support  of  their  case  that  all 
relief  work  should  be  done  by  the  Church,  rather  than  by 
the  State.  They  call  attention  to  the  terrible  sufferings 
of  the  sick  and  aged  who  were  driven  from  parish  to 
parish,  not  only  in  England,  but  in  Switzerland,  Germany, 
and  the  other  Protestant  countries  as  well.  Without  neces- 
sarily accepting  Lallemand's  conclusions,  we  may  properly 
accept  his  report  of  these  evils  as  thoroughly  in  accord 
with  the  facts. 

THE  WORK-HOUSE  TEST 

The  next  step  in  the  development  of  the  English  Poor 
Law  may  be  described  as  the  rise  of  the  work-house.  As 
we  have  already  seen,  there  was  careless  parish  adminis- 
tration of  the  funds,  which  produced  increasingly  heavy 
expense  for  the  care  of  the  poor.  In  1691,  an  effort  was 
made  to  meet  this  situation  by  requiring  a  register  of 


190  SOCIAL  WORK 

paupers  and  the  amount  of  relief  granted  to  them.  This 
last  was  to  be  publicly  examined  at  the  annual  vestry 
meeting,  and  no  name  was  to  be  added  during  the  year 
except  by  the  authority  of  one  or  more  Justices.  However, 
very  little  advantage,  if  any,  seems  to  have  accrued  from 
this  piece  of  legislation,  and  the  number  of  paupers  kept 
on  growing. 

In  1697  a  special  Act  of  Parliament  authorized  the 
erection  of  a  work-house  in  Bristol,  where  the  local  poor 
could  be  put  at  remunerative  labor.  This  seems  to  have 
been  sufficiently  successful  in  reducing  expenses  to  lead 
other  communities  to  imitate  the  Bristol  experiment. 
Because,  however,  some  of  the  parishes  were  too  small 
to  maintain  separate  work-houses,  it  was  provided,  in 
1723,  that  parishes  might  unite  for  this  purpose,  and  "  that 
no  poor  who  refused  to  be  lodged  and  kept  in  such  houses 
should  be  entitled  to  ask  for  parochial  relief."  This  pro- 
vision acquired  fame  as  the  "  Work-house  Test."  So  far, 
the  act  might  be  held  to  have  provided  wisely. 

But  in  another  respect,  it  initiated  a  very  serious  evil. 
It  permitted  parishes  to  "  farm  out  "  the  poor  on  contract. 
This  simply  meant  in  practise  that  the  care  of  many 
indigents  was  let  by  contract  to  the  lowest  bidder.  It  meant, 
as  a  consequence,  almost  criminal  exploitation  and  neglect, 
particularly  of  young  children  and  very  old  people. 

In  1782,  what  is  known  as  Gilberts's  Act  abolished  the 
"  farming  out  "  of  the  poor,  and  at  the  same  time,  initiated 
certain  other  reforms.  In  order  further  to  reduce  the 
expense  of  administering  relief  in  small  units,  parishes 
were  permitted  to  unite,  not  merely  for  the  establishment 
and  maintenance  of  work-houses,  but  also  for  the  pro- 
vision of  out-relief  (care  of  the  poor  in  private  homes). 
This  Act  also  provided,  for  the  first  time,  paid  officials, 
known  as  "  guardians,"  appointed  by  the  Justices  of  the 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW    191 

Peace  to  administer  both  indoor  (institutional)  and  out- 
door relief.  The  assessment  and  collection  of  poor  rates 
was  left  to  the  overseers.  The  whole  procedure  was  to  be 
supervised  by  the  Justices,  with  the  aid  of  visitors,  whom 
they  appointed.  Unfortunately,  this  law  was  permissive 
rather  than  compulsory,  and  its  provisions  could  be 
adopted  only  upon  their  acceptance  by  a  two-thirds  vote 
of  the  property  owners  in  parishes  which  it  was  proposed 
to  unite.  As  a  result,  the  system  never  became  wide- 
spread, although  sixty-seven  such  unions  were  formed. 

THE  ALLOWANCE  SYSTEM 

Along  with  the  reforms  of  Gilbert's  Act,  there  went 
the  establishment  of  what  is  commonly  known  as  the 
"  allowance  system."  It  was  an  effort  to  mitigate  the 
cruelties  connected  with  the  enforcement  of  the  Settlement 
Act,  and  at  the  same  time,  to  provide  for  those  who  were 
able  to  earn  a  part  of  their  support.  This  law  expressly 
stipulated  that  none  but  the  old  and  infirm  poor,  the 
mothers  of  illegitimates,  and  children  not  yet  able  to  work 
should  be  sent  to  the  poorhouse.  For  the  able-bodied  poor 
work  was  to  be  found  near  their  own  homes  by  the 
"  guardians,"  who  were  also  to  collect  their  wages  for 
them  and  apply  the  same  toward  their  support,  supple- 
menting any  deficiency  by  a  grant  from  the  relief  funds. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  system  of  wage  subsidies, 
which,  for  a  time,  threatened  to  pauperize  the  entire  wage- 
earning  population  of  England. 

This  system  of  "  allowances  "  seems  to  have  reached 
its  culmination  in  the  so-called  Berkshire  plan  of  1795. 
This  scheme,  which  was  not  at  first  sanctioned  by  specific 
legislation,  but  was  widely  used,  provided  for  the  relief 
of  all  poor  and  industrious  families  whose  income  was 
charged  to  be  insufficient.  The  amount  of  the  "  allow- 


192  SOCIAL  WORK 

ance  "  was  based  on  the  price  of  wheat  and  the  size  of  the 
family.  In  1796,  Parliament  legalized  the  aid  of  able- 
bodied  poor  as  a  supplement  to  inadequate  wages,  and  also 
rescinded  the  "  Work-house  Test." 

The  results  were  such  as  might  be  expected:  (i)  a 
tremendous  increase  in  the  amount  expended  for  relief — 
from  $10,000,000  in  1783  to  $21,000,000  in  1803,  and 
$39,000,000  in  1818;  (2)  a  marked  decrease  in  wages; 
and  (3)  evidence  of  a  serious  loss  of  independence, 
self-respect,  self-control  and  efficiency  in  the  laboring 
population.  It  was  this  situation  which  inspired  the  well- 
known  essays  of  Malthus  and  popularized  his  theory 
of  population. 

But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  an  unwise 
Poor  Law  unwisely  administered  was  the  sole  cause  of  the 
evils  indicated  above.  It  should  be  remembered  that  this 
was  the  period  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  and  of  the 
Napoleonic  Wars.  The  latter  meant  the  breaking  up  of 
many  families,  a  heavy  burden  of  taxes  and  high  prices. 
The  former  meant  a  fairly  complete  economic  and  social 
disorganization,  which  we  have  discussed  in  Chapter  V. 
The  "  enclosures,"  the  factory  system  driving  out  the 
domestic  system  of  manufacture,  the  rapid  growth  of 
towns  and  cities  and  the  consequent  changes  in  habits 
of  living  and  working  would  of  themselves  have  broken 
the  morale  of  a  large  part  of  the  population. 

THE  POOR  LAW  OF  1834 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  relative  influence  of 
these  several  factors,  Parliament  was  moved  to  appoint 
an  investigating  committee  in  1817.  For  some  reason,  all 
that  came  of  it  was  the  change  of  a  few  details  in  the  Poor 
Law  administration.  But  a  second  commission  was 
appointed  in  1832,  which  worked  for,  two  years  and 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW    193 

brought  in  a  report  whose  startling  disclosures  succeeded 
in  stirring  Parliament  to  action. 

After  presenting  its  findings,  together  with  a  large 
body  of  supporting  evidence,  the  Commission  offered  three 
important  recommendations  which  were  the  basis  of  the 
Law  of  1834.  It  was  proposed  as  a  fundamental  principle 
"  that  the  condition  of  the  paupers  shall  in  no  case  be  so 
eligible  as  the  condition  of  persons  of  the  lowest  class 
subsisting  on  the  fruits  of  their  own  industry."  The 
re-establishment  of  the  Work-house  Test  was  recom- 
mended as  the  only  means  by  which  the  principle  of  less 
eligibility  could  be  practically  enforced.  Finally,  in  order 
that  the  relief  afforded  to  each  class  of  paupers  might  be 
uniform  throughout  the  kingdom,  the  Commission  recom- 
mended the  establishment  of  a  central  board  of  control. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  new  law  did  create  a  central 
authority  consisting  of  three  Poor  Law  Commissioners, 
who  were  given  extensive  power  over  local  authorities 
to  give  orders  and  enforce  regulations  with  minute 
supervision  through  inspectors  and  auditors.  The  Com- 
missioners were  authorized  to  divide  the  country  into 
districts,  which  were  called  Poor  Law  Unions,  to  take 
the  place  of  the  parishes  as  units  of  administration.  Each 
union  was  to  have  an  unpaid  Board  of  Guardians,  which 
was  to  appoint  paid  executive  officers. 

But  not  even  at  th*  outset  was  the  principle  of  national 
uniformity  put  into  effect.  The  local  authorities  were  often 
loathe  to  yield  to  the  Commissioners,  and  the  latter  on 
their  part  seem  to  have  been  somewhat  uncertain  as  to  how 
far  they  should  go  in  enforcing  the  "  Principles  of  1834." 
In  1842  they  issued  what  was  known  as  the  Outdoor 
Labour  Test  Order,  which  permitted  certain  Poor  Law 
Unions  to  give  outdoor  relief  to  able-bodied  persons  on 
condition  of  requiring  a  labor  test.  In  1844  they  issued 
13 


194  SOCIAL  WORK 

an  almost  contradictory  set  of  instructions  known  as  the 
Outdoor  Relief  Prohibitory  Order.  This  forbade  out- 
door relief  to  able-bodied  persons  except  under  very 
unusual  circumstances.  The  General  Consolidated  Order 
of  1847  provided  among  other  things  for  a  single  work- 
house in  each  union,  to  house  all  kinds  and  conditions  of 
paupers.  This,  too,  was  a  deviation  from  the  recommenda- 
tions of  the  report  of  1834,  which  had  urged  a  number  of 
institutions  for  each  union,  making  it  possible  to  separate 
different  groups  of  needy  people — aged  and  infirm, 
children,  sick,  etc.  This  work-house  was  not  intended 
to  be  used  for  the  curative  treatment  of  anyone. 
"  It  was  to  be  a  place  which,  whilst  it  provided  the  full 
requirements  of  physical  health,  starved  both  the  will  and 
the  intelligence,  and  forced  the  pauper  into  a  condition  of 
blank-mindedness."  Thus  the  principle  of  less  eligibility 
was  carried  out,  not  by  less  food,  inferior  clothing,  worse 
accommodations,  etc.,  than  were  enjoyed  by  independent 
laborers,  but  by  monotonous  toil,  lack  of  recreation,  and 
absence  of  any  mental  stimulus. 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY  DEVELOPMENTS 

The  law  of  1834  was  the  basis  of  the  English  public 
relief  system  until  very  recently.  To  be  sure,  it  was 
modified,  from  time  to  time,  and  what  is  more  important, 
the  administrative  policies  showed  throughout  the  re- 
mainder of  the  century  a  steady,  though  unplanned  drift 
away  from  the  "  Principles  of  1834."  In  1847  the  Poor 
Law  Commissioners  were  abolished  and  their  duties 
transferred  to  the  Poor  Law  Board  under  a  minister 
responsible  to  Parliament.  In  1871,  these  activities 
together  with  those  pertaining  to  sanitation  and  public 
works  were  transferred  to  the  new  Local  Government 
Board.  The  purpose  of  this  consolidation  was  to  overcome 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW    195 

the  confusion  arising  out  of  the  fact  that  several  divisions 
of  the  national  government  were  dealing  with  the 
local  authorities. 

Two  important  supplementary  pieces  of  legislation 
dealt  with  the  law  of  "  settlement "  and  the  unit  of 
taxation.  The  Act  of  1795  had  not  succeeded  in  elim- 
inating the  evils  attendant  upon  the  transportation  of  the 
poor  from  parish  to  parish,  so  that  there  was  passed  in 
1 846  a  new  law  known  as  the  Irremovable  Poor  Act.  This 
law  forbade  the  removal  of  a  dependent  person  who  had 
lived  in  a  parish  for  five  years.  A  later  amendment  reduced 
this  time  to  one  year.  The  unequal  burden  on  the  various 
parishes  was  supposed  to  be  met  by  requiring  the  wealthier 
parishes  to  "  rate  in  aid."  But  this  provision  had  never 
been  easy  to  enforce,  and  in  1865  the  Union  Chargeability 
Act  made  the  Poor  Law  Union  instead  of  the  parish  the 
bearer  of  the  poor  rate. 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  changes  during  the  second 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  center  around  the  develop- 
ment of  specialized  care  for  various  groups  of  needy  people 
— sick,  children,  aged  and  infirm,  insane,  feeble-minded, 
blind,  etc.  The  Webbs  point  out  that  "this  supple- 
mentary policy  was  avowedly  based,  not  on  the  principle 
of  a  minimum  of  relief  of  destitution  with  deterrent 
conditions,  but  on  that  of  supplying  whatever  was  neces- 
sary for  adequate  training  or  treatment,  without  objecting 
to  the  incidental  result  that  this  meant  placing  out  in  the 
competitive  world  the  persons  thus  dealt  with  in  a  position 
of  positive  advantage  as  compared  with  the  lowest  class  of 
independent  labourers,  who  plainly  could  get  no  such 
training  or  treatment." 

For  dependent  children  there  were  provided  "  district 
schools,"  and  foster  homes.  The  first  district  schools  were 
little  more  than  enormous  orphanages,  but  the  system  of 


196  SOCIAL  WORK 

"  boarding-out "  which  was  developed  by  the  Local  Gov- 
ernment Board  was  much  like  the  programs  of  the  best 
child-placing  agencies  of  the  present  day. 

For  the  sick  there  were  established  hospitals,  dis- 
pensaries, asylums  and  infirmaries.  As  early  as  1853  the 
Poor  Law  Board  considered  that  the  qualifications  of  its 
medical  officers  "  ought  to  be  such  as  to  ensure  for  the  poor 
a  degree  of  skill  in  their  medical  attendants  equal  to  that 
which  can  be  commanded  by  the  more  fortunate  classes  of 
the  community." 

More  and  more  the  insane  and  feeble-minded  were 
gathered  into  specialized  institutions  where  they  might 
receive  the  kind  of  care  and  treatment  they  particularly 
needed.  The  blind  and  the  deaf  were  afforded  oppor- 
tunities for  an  education  in  special  schools.  Thus  the 
work-houses,  which  in  the  first  half  of  the  century  were 
"  catch-alls,"  came  to  be  chiefly  homes  for  the  aged 
and  infirm. 

By  the  time  of  the  1909  report  of  the  Royal  Commis- 
sion on  the  Poor  Law  there  had  been  a  pretty  complete 
shift  from  the  position  of  1834.  The  principles  of  national 
uniformity,  less  eligibility  and  the  workhouse  test  had  all 
been  practically  discarded  except  in  the  case  of  "  way- 
farers and  vagrants."  For  these,  relief  was  offered  only 
in  "  casual  wards  "  where  food  and  accommodations  were 
distinctly  inferior  to  those  in  the  rest  of  the  work-house, 
and  where  there  was,  moreover,  compulsory  detention  and 
a  task  of  disagreeable  and  monotonous  labor. 

In  place  of  the  discarded  principles  there  had  appeared 
three  which  were  practically  unknown  in  1834.  The  first 
was  that  of  curative  treatment  or  rehabilitation,  that  is, 
actually  bringing  about  physical,  mental  or  moral  improve- 
ment. This  was  unquestionably  influenced  by  the  humani- 
tarian movements  of  which  we  have  already  spoken, 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW    197 

particularly  by  charity  organization.  But  behind  and 
impelling  both  the  public  and  the  private  agencies  was  the 
growth  of  democracy  and  of  modern  science. 

The  second  principle  which  had  been  emerging  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  described  by 
some  as  the  "  principle  of  universal  provision."  By  this  is 
meant  that  the  government  is  more  and  more  doing  certain 
things  for  the  whole  body  of  citizens  without  reference  to 
destitution.  Most  immediately  affecting  the  Poor  Law 
have  been  the  development  of  education,  sanitation,  vacci- 
nation, public  hospitals,  parks,  museums,  etc.  These  are 
offered  to  all  who  care  to  make  use  of  them,  regardless  of 
their  economic  or  social  status.  Again  we  feel  the  influence 
of  the  growth  of  democracy. 

Third  is  the  principle  of  compulsion,  that  is,  treating 
the  individual  in  the  way  that  the  community  deems  best, 
with  relative  disregard  of  his  opinion  and  feeling  in  the 
matter.  This  is  apparent  in  the  restraint  of  vagrants  in  the 
casual  wards,  the  compulsory  detention  of  able-bodied  men 
in  work-houses  under  certain  conditions,  isolation  of  the 
"  mentally  unsound,"  and  of  persons  with  infectious  dis- 
eases, removal  of  children  from  unfit  parents,  compulsory 
vaccination,  regulation  of  child  labor  and  compulsory 
schooling.  This  is,  on  the  surface,  an  arbitrariness  which 
seems  not  to  comport  with  our  ideas  of  democracy.  But 
it  has  in  mind  the  welfare  of  the  individual  immediately 
concerned  only  a  little  less  than  that  of  the  community  as 
a  whole.  It  is  entirely  in  harmony  with  a  democracy  which 
stands  far  "  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number." 

The  contrast  between  1834  and  1907  is  so  well  stated 
by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  that  we  quote  from  their  "  English 
Poor  Law  Policy." 

"  The '  principles  of  1834  '  plainly  embody  the  doctrine 
of  laisser  faire.  They  assume  the  non-responsibility  of 


198  SOCIAL  WORK 

the  community  for  anything  beyond  keeping  the  destitute 
applicant  alive.  They  rely,  for  inducing  the  indivkiual  to 
support  himself  independently,  on  the  pressure  that  results 
from  his  being,  in  the  competitive  struggle,  simply  '  let 
alone.'  As  the  only  alternative  to  self-support,  there  is  to 
be  presented  to  him,  uniformly  throughout  the  country, 
the  undeviating  regimen  of  the  work-house,  with  condi- 
tions '  less  eligible '  than  those  of  the  lowest  grade  of 
independent  labourer. 

"  The  '  principles  of  1907 '  embody  the  doctrine  of  a 
mutual  obligation  between  the  individual  and  the  com- 
munity. The  universal  maintenance  of  a  definite  minimum 
of  civilized  life — seen  to  be  in  the  interest  of  the  com- 
munity no  less  than  that  of  the  individual — becomes  the 
joint  responsibility  of  an  indissoluble  partnership.  The 
community  recognizes  a  duty  in  the  curative  treatment  of 
all  who  are  in  need  of  it;  a  duty  most  clearly  seen  in  the 
medical  treatment  of  the  sick  and  the  education  of  the 
children.  Once  this  corporate  responsibility  is  accepted, 
it  becomes  a  question  whether  the  universal  provision  of 
any  necessary  common  service  is  not  tl^e  most  advantageous 
method  of  fulfilling  such  responsibility!" 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Aschrott,  Paul:  The  English  Poor  Law  System,  Past  and  Present. 
Translated  from  the  German  by  H.  P.  Thomas.  London,  1888. 

Leonard,  E.  M. :  The  Early  History  of  English  Poor  Relief.  Cam- 
bridge, 1900. 

Gray,  B.  Kirkman:  A  History  of  English  Philanthropy  from  the 
Dissolution  of  the  Monasteries  to  the  Taking  of  the  First  Census. 
London:  P.  S.  King,  1905. 

Nicholls,  Sir  George :  A  History  of  the  English  Poor  Law,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  legislation  and  other  circumstances  affecting  the 
condition  of  the  people.  London,  1854,  2  vols. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW    199 

Mackay,  Thomas :  A  History  of  the  English  Poor  Law.    London, 

1899.    A  continuation  of  Nicholls'  two-volume  work. 
Ruggles,  Thomas.    History  of  the  Poor;  Their  Rights,  Duties  and 

the  Laws  Respecting  Them.     London,  1797. 
Report  of  the  Commissioners  for  Inquiring  into  the  Administration 

and    Practical    Operation    of   the    Poor    Laws,    1834.     London: 

Darling  &  Son,  1905. 
Webb,   Sidney  and  Beatrice:  English  Poor  Law  Policy.    London: 

Longmans  Green,  1910. 
Bosanquet,  Helen  D. :  The  Poor  Law  Report  of  1009 :  a  Summary. 

London :   Macmillan,   1909. 

Minority  Report  of  the  Poor  Law  Commission.     Edited  with  Intro- 
duction   by   Sidney   and    Beatrice   Webb.    London :    Longmans 

Green,  1909.    2  vols. 
Ministry   of   Health.     First    Annual    Report,    1919-1920,    Part   III. 

Administration  of  the  Poor  Law,  Unemployed  Workman  Act, 

Old  Age  Pensions  Acts. 


CHAPTER  XII 
TRANSCENDING  THE  POOR  LAW 

THE  high  points  in  the  development  of  a  public  policy 
toward  the  problems  of  poverty  in  England  are  1601,  1834 
and  1909.  The  first  date  marks  the  culmination  of  the 
Elizabethan  efforts  to  fix  responsibility  for  the  poor  upon 
the  various  local  communities.  The  law  of  1834  con- 
centrated the  authority  in  the  hands  of  a  National 
Department.  The  early  years  of  the  twentieth  century  saw 
the  introduction  of  two  important  measures  which  go  far 
beyond  mere  poor  relief.  By  these,  were  established  a 
system  of  old  age  pensions  and  national  insurance  against 
sickness,  invalidity  and  unemployment. 

The  Poor  Law  had  never  succeeded  in  solving  the 
problems  of  poverty.  It  was  always  breaking  down  at 
some  point  or  other.  But  this  fact  alone  did  not  give  rise 
to  the  changes  which  have  been  made  from  time  to  time. 
Back  of  the  first  Poor  Law  lay  the  breaking  up  of  feudalism 
and  the  gild  system,  the  Protestant  Reformation  and  the 
rise  of  Nationalism.  Between  that  and  the  'reforms  of 
1834  came  still  further  strengthening  of  the  central 
government,  the  Napoleonic  Wars,  and  the  Industrial 
Revolution.  In  the  nineteenth  century  came  the  tremendous 
growth  of  cities  and  the  Democratic  Movement. 

THE  DEMOCRATIC  MOVEMENT 

The  Democratic  Movement  of  the  nineteenth  century 

inherited  from  the  French  Revolution  its  slogan  "  liberty, 

equality   and    fraternity."     In    spite   of    the    repressive 

measures  adopted  by  England,  as  well  as  by  the  more 

200 


TRANSCENDING  THE  POOR  LAW          201 

reactionary  monarchies  on  the  Continent,  these  ideas  made 
steady  gain  and  presently  took  tangible  form  both  in  the 
political  and  economic  fields.  In  politics  this  movement 
was  heartily  espoused  by  the  commercial  and  industrial 
bourgeoisie.  These  new  "captains  of  industry"  were 
seeking  privileges  for  themselves  in  opposition  to  the 
older  classes,  the  nobility  and  the  clergy.  Moreover,  they 
were  willing  to  share  political  privileges  so  long  as  their 
economic  position  was  not  hurt.  Therefore,  we  find  them 
standing  strongly  behind  the  movements  to  extend  the 
franchise,  which  resulted  finally  in  giving  practically  every 
Britisher  the  ballot. 

But  in  the  economic  field,  the  democratic  movement 
was  characterized  chiefly  by  a  struggle  of  the  proletariat, 
the  new  working  class,  not  only  against  the  nobility  and 
the  clergy,  but  primarily  against  the  new  bourgeoisie. 
Those  phases  of  the  movement  for  industrial  democracy 
which  are  usually  called  socialism  or  trade  unionism  we 
have  already  discussed  briefly  in  preceding  chapters. 

The  number  of  persons  who  call  themselves  socialists 
has  never  been  very  large  in  England,  but  the  influence  of 
these  people  and  of  their  spiritual  kinsmen  in  other  groups 
has  been  very  great.  The  Association  of  All  Classes  and 
All  Nations,  the  Christian  Socialists,  the  Communist 
League,  the  Social  Democratic  Federation  and  the  Fabian 
Society,  all  have  made  their  contributions  to  this  effort  to 
secure  economic  justice. 

The  trade  unions,  in  spite  of  vigorous  opposition 
throughout  the  past  century,  have  won  a  much  larger  fol- 
lowing, until  to-day  an  overwhelming  majority  of  English 
wage-earners  are  members  of  some  union  or  other. 
Through  the  Independent  Labour  Party,  the  Labour  Rep- 
resentative Committee  and  now  the  Labour  Party,  these 
folk  have  been  able  to  exert  a  powerful  influence  upon 


202  SOCIAL  WORK 

legislation,  even  though  their  representatives  constitute  a 
relatively  small  group  in  Parliament. 

In  response  to  the  democratic  urge,  there  had  grown 
up  branches  of  the  national  and  local  governments  which 
provided  various  services  for  the  general  population, 
services  which,  moreover,  definitely  overlapped  the  work 
of  the  Poor  Law  Authority.  Among  these  were  the 
Education  Authority,  Health  Authority,  Lunacy  Author- 
ity, Unemployment  Authority  and  Pension  Authority. 
Their  existence  suggested  to  many  liberal-minded  folk  the 
possibility  of  dispensing  entirely  with  the  Poor  Law. 
All  along,  the  trade  unionists,  and  still  more  the  socialists, 
had  been  calling  for  fundamental  reforms  which  they 
believed  would  make  both  the  public  relief  system  and  the 
private  charities  unnecessary. 

THE  POOR  LAW  REPORT  OF  1909 

It  was  in  large  part  the  influence  of  these  liberal  groups 
that  brought  about  the  appointment  in  1905  of  a  Royal 
Commission  on  the  Poor  Laws  and  Unemployed.  Other 
forces  which  contributed  to  the  demand  for  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  Poor  Law  were  the  ideas  of  business  efficiency 
which  had  developed  in  commerce  and  industry,  and  the 
methods  of  case  work  developed  by  the  charity  organiza- 
tion societies.  Whatever  the  relative  influence  of  these 
various  factors,  a  commission  of  eighteen  members  was 
appointed  and  spent  between  three  and  four  years  assem- 
bling evidence  and  drawing  up  its  conclusions. 

There  were  really  two  reports  published  by  this  Com- 
mission, one,  the  official  majority  report,  and  another 
presented  by  a  dissenting  minority.  The  majority  repre- 
sented the  charity  organization  viewpoint  and  sought  to 
"  widen,  strengthen  and  humanise  the  Poor  Law."  The 
minority  report,  which  was  signed  by  a  member  of  the 


TRANSCENDING  THE  POOR  LAW          103 

Trade  Union  Congress,  a  member  of  the  Independent 
Labour  Party,  the  chairman  of  the  Central  Unemployed 
Body  and  a  member  of  the  Fabian  Society,  had  as  its 
slogans,  "  Break  Up  the  Poor  Law  "  and  "  Abolish  the 
Work-house."  The  commission,  however,  agreed  with 
remarkable  unanimity  upon  the  failure  of  the  existing 
Poor  Law  and  the  necessity  for  something  new.  The 
members  united  in  condemning  the  Work-house,  the 
Union  and  the  Board  of  Guardians  as  a  system.  They 
admitted  that  the  existing  'relief  administration  was 
pauperizing,  and  that  it  encouraged  low  wages,  under- 
employment and  "  sweated  "  industries. 

Primarily  the  majority  report  was  devoted  to  the 
relief  system  as  such,  and  its  purpose  as  expressed  by  Mrs. 
Bosanquet  was  "  to  substitute  a  vital  and  organic  system  of 
combined  voluntary  and  public  assistance  for  the  mechani- 
cal routine  of  the  Poor  Law  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
confused  chaos  of  charity  on  the  other."  It  recommended, 
therefore,  a  reorganization  under  what  it  proposed  to  call 
the  Public  Assistance  Authority,  subject  to  the  general 
control  and  supervision  of  the  Local  Government  Board. 
The  local  committees  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  county 
councils,  "  after  appointment  acting  independently." 
Correlated  with  them  were  to  be  Voluntary  Aid  Commit- 
tees, each  of  which  was  to  be  "  a  recognized  link  between 
public  assistance  and  charity."  It  was  intended  that 
"  hopeful  cases "  should  be  dealt  with  by  the  private 
agencies,  leaving  "  State  action  for  that  section  of  the 
community  which  needed  the  bridle,  the  curb  and  the  spurs 
to  be  disciplined." 

The  minority  felt  that  "What  is  proposed  by  the 
majority,  in  substitution  for  the  relief  afforded  by  the  Dis- 
tress Committees  of  the  Unemployed,  and  for  the  meals 
supplied  to  the  hungry  children  by  the  Education  Authori- 


204  SOCIAL  WORK 

ties,  as  well  as  for  the  work  of  the  Boards  of  Guardians, 
is,  for  all  the  novel  terminology,  essentially  the  present 
Poor  Law  under  non-elective  administration."  Indeed,  it 
looks  to  the  outsider  as  though  the  majority  was 
seeking  to  glorify  charity  and  to  place  the  public 
welfare  work  under  the  control  of  established  private 
philanthropic  agencies. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  significant  that  in  their  discus- 
sions and  recommendations,  the  majority  recognized  that 
relief  giving  alone  was  inadequate.  Therefore,  they 
proceeded  to  recommend,  as  means  of  reducing  unemploy- 
ment, labor  bureaus,  unemployment  insurance,  conscious 
efforts  to  decasualize  labor,  and  compulsory  school 
attendance.  To  meet  the  needs  created  by  sickness  and 
invalidity,  they  recommended  a  form  of  health  insurance. 
These  compulsory  insurance  schemes  were  opposed  by  the 
minority  "  in  view  of  its  probable  adverse  effect  on  Trade 
Union  membership  and  organization." 

The  main  issue  between  the  two  groups  of  commis- 
sioners is  thus  put  by  Professor  Bosanquet,  one  of  the 
ablest  advocates  of  the  majority  position: 

"The  antagonism  cannot  be  put  too  strongly.  The 
Majority  proceed  upon  the  principle  that  where  there  is 
a  failure  of  social  self-maintenance  in  the  sense  above 
defined,  there  is  a  defect  in  the  citizen  character,  or  at  least 
a  grave  danger  to  its  integrity;  and  that,  therefore,  every 
case  of  this  kind  raises  a  problem  which  is  '  moral '  in 
the  sense  of  affecting  the  whole  capacity  of  self -manage- 
ment, to  begin  with  in  the  person  who  has  failed,  and 
secondarily  in  the  whole  community  so  far  as  influenced 
by  expectation  and  example." 

On  which  the  Webbs,  leaders  of  the  minority  group, 
comment  as  follows : 

"  We  have  first  the  suggestion  that,  in  all  cases  of 


TRANSCENDING  THE  POOR  LAW          205 

persons  who  need  maintenance  at  the  hands  of  the  state, 
there  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  moral  defect,  common  to 
the  whole  class  and  requiring  specific  treatment.  Secondly, 
we  see  creeping  out  from  behind  this  suggestion  a  further 
assumption  as  to  the  policy  which  ought  to  be  pursued  by 
the  Poor  Law  Authority.  This  authority,  which  is  to 
have  in  its  charge  all  the  heterogeneous  population  of 
infants,  children,  sick  and  mentally  defective  persons,  the 
aged  and  infirm,  the  widows,  the  vagrants  and  the  unem- 
ployed, is  to  treat  them,  not  with  a  single  eye  to  what  is 
best  calculated  to  turn  them,  or  any  of  them  into  efficient 
citizens,  not  even  with  a  single  eye  to  what  will  most 
successfully  remedy  the  '  moral  defect '  which  they  are 
assumed  all  to  possess,  but  with  the  quite  different  object 
or  warning  off  or  deterring  '  by  expectation  and  example,' 
other  persons  from  applying  for  like  treatment." 

The  principle  underlying  the  recommendations  of  the 
minority  is  thus  set  forth  in  its  report : 

"  When  a  Destitution  Authority  departs  from  the 
simple  function  of  providing  bare  maintenance  under 
deterrent  conditions,  it  finds  it  quite  impossible  to  mark  off 
or  delimit  its  services  from  those  which  are  required  by 
and  provided  for,  the  population  at  large.  The  function 
of  preventing  and  treating  disease  among  destitute  persons 
cannot  in  practise,  be  distinguished  from  the  prevention 
and  treatment  of  disease  in  other  persons.  The  rearing  of 
infants  and  the  education  of  children  whose  parents  are 
destitute  does  not  differ  from  the  rearing  of  infants  and 
the  education  of  children  whose  parents  are  not  destitute. 
The  liability  of  persons  to  be  compulsorily  removed  from 
their  homes,  because  they  have  become  a  public  nuisance  or 
a  source  of  danger,  must  surely  be  the  same  whether 

or  not  they  are  technically  '  destitute.' What  is 

demanded  by  the  conditions  is  not  a  division  according  to 


2o6  SOCIAL  WORK 

the  presence  or  absence  of  destitution,  but  a  division 
according  to  the  services  to  be  provided." 

The  distinctive  recommendations  of  the  minority 
report  were  that  practically  all  the  Poor  Laws,  including 
the  Settlement  Acts,  be  repealed,  that  the  Boards  of 
Guardians  be  abolished  and  their  duties,  property,  etc.,  be 
transferred  to  the  County  Councils.  They  proposed  that 
provision  for  children  of  school  age  be  assumed  by  the  Edu- 
cation Comtmittee;  provision  for  the  sick  and  permanently 
incapacitated,  infants  under  school  age,  and  aged  needing 
institutional  care  by  the  Health  Committee;  provision 
for  the  mentally  defective  of  all  grades  and  ages  by 
the  Asylums  Committee;  the  aged  to  whom  pensions  are 
awarded  by  the  Pension  Committee.  In  order  to  corre- 
late the  efforts  which  might  be  expended  on  behalf  of  a 
single  family,  they  urged  the  creation  of  the  office  of 
Registrar  of  Public  Assistance. 

To  meet  the  needs  of  the  able-bodied,  the  minority 
report  recommended  the  establishment  of  a  Ministry  of 
Labour  to  include  six  divisions:  National  Labour 
Exchange,  Trade  Insurance  Division,  Maintenance  and 
Training  Division,  Industrial  Regulation  Division,  Emi- 
gration and  Immigration  Division  and  Statistical  Division. 
They  urged  further  restriction  of  child  labor,  and  the 
requirement  that  young  people  under  eighteen  should 
attend  trade  schools  a  certain  portion  of  each  week.  In 
order  to  help  regularize  the  national  demand  for  labor, 
they  recommended  the  planning  of  public  work  on  the  basis 
of  a  ten  years'  program,  so  that  in  lean  years  the  gov- 
ernment might  absorb  the  surplus  labor,  without  having 
to  provide  "  busy  work."  For  the  ultimate  residuum 
of  men  out  of  employment,  they  proposed  labor  colonies 
both  voluntary  and  compulsory  like  those  already 
established  on  the  Continent.  This  meant  a  serious  effort 


TRANSCENDING  THE  POOR  LAW.          207 

to  get  away  from  the  stigma  of  charity  and  pauperism 
and  put  all,  rich  and  poor,  so  far  as  possible  on  the  same 
basis  before  the  law.  Nevertheless,  even  the  minority 
saw  that  the  measures  proposed  would  not  likely  eliminate 
the  need  of  relief.  Therefore,  they  proposed  that  there 
should  be  certain  provision  for  care  in  their  homes  of 
widows  with  children,  and  a  limited  number  of  other 
needy  folk. 

OLD  AGE  PENSIONS 

As  we  noted  before,  the  important  feature  of  these 
1909  reports  is  their  common  recognition  of  the  inade- 
quacy and  the  undemocratic  nature  of  charity,  and  their 
effort  to  provide  something  that  would  strike  closer  to 
the  roots  of  poverty  and  minimize  the  necessity 
for  relief. 

During  the  course  of  the  investigation  and  a  year 
before  the  report  was  made  public,  there  was  established  a 
system  of  Old  Age  Pensions.  In  this,  England  apparently 
was  influenced  by  the  Danish  pension  system,  and  by 
the  German  and  French  old  age  insurance  acts.  Under  the 
Act  of  1908,  nearly  all  persons  over  seventy  years  of  age 
are  entitled  to  a  pension  of  five  shillings  a  week,  or  a 
smaller  amount  if  less  is  needed  to  bring  the  total  income 
up  to  thirteen  shillings.  There  are  certain  qualifications 
for  the  recipient  of  a  pension.  He  must  have  resided  in 
Great  Britain  for  twenty-five  years  and  be  a  citizen.  The 
serving  of  a  prison  sentence,  or  indulgence  in  habitual 
inebriety  may  disqualify  him  for  a  period  of  ten  years. 
On  the  economic  side,  he  must  be  poor,  but  must  not  have 
been  a  pauper. 

In  spite  of  the  very  high  age  limit,  and  other  restric- 
tions, the  number  of  pensions  was  667,000  in  the  first 
year,  and  by  1912  practically  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the 


208  SOCIAL  WORK 

population  over  seventy  years  of  age  was  receiving  old 
age  pensions. 

There  has  been  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  some  that  the 
prospect  of  an  old  age  pension  would  decrease  habits  of 
thrift,  would  exercise  a  disintegrating  effect  on  family  life, 
depress  wages,  and  would  impose  an  enormous  cost  upon 
the  nation.  The  experience  of  England  does  not  seem  to 
have  substantiated  the  first  three  fears,  and  the  significance 
of  the  reality  of  the  fourth  is  not  that  the  pensions  are 
objectionable,  but  that  the  extent  of  old  age  distress  and 
the  need  for  support  is  much  greater  than  most  people  are 
willing  to  believe.  Whatever  arguments  may  be  sustained 
in  regard  to  -the  undemocratic  character  of  the  old  age 
pensions,  it  is  clear  that  they  are  much  more  dignified, 
business-like,  and  conducive  to  self-respect,  than  is  the 
usual  charity.  The  amount  of  the  pension  is  admittedly 
too  small,  but  in  so  far  as  it  does  suffice,  it  has  the 
advantage  over  poor  relief  that  it  does  not  wait  until 
the  aged  person  is  reduced  to  abject  poverty. 

THE  NATIONAL  INSURANCE  ACT 

In  1911,  two  years  after  the  reports  of  the  Poor  Law 
Commission,  there  was  passed  the  National  Insurance  Act, 
providing  against  sickness,  invalidity  and  unemployment. 
Like  the  Old  Age  Pension  Law,  this  was  influenced 
largely  by  similar  schemes  already  adopted  in  other 
countries.  In  fact,  Germany  had  initiated  a  national  com- 
pulsory system  of  health  insurance  as  early  as  1883,  and 
unemployment  insurance  had  been  introduced  on  a  volun- 
tary basis  in  1905  by  France  and  Norway. 

The  British  Act  of  1911  requires  that  all  manual 
laborers  between  sixteen  and  seventy  years  of  age,  and 
all  other  employed  persons  with  an  annual  income  of  less 
than  one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds,  carry  health  insurance. 
Voluntary  insurance  is  open  to  persons  not  covered  by 


TRANSCENDING  THE  POOR  LAW          209 

the  compulsory  system,  whose  earned  income  is  less  than 
one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds.  The  benefits  granted  by 
the  Act  are  a  cash  benefit  for  disability,  medical  aid,  a 
maternity  benefit  both  in  money  and  in  obstetrical  aid, 
and  a  funeral  benefit.  The  maternity  benefit,  it  should  be 
stated,  applies  both  to  insured  women  and  the  wives  of 
insured  men. 

The  cost  is  divided  among  employers,  employes  and 
the  state,  according  to  a  sliding  scale  which  adjusts  the 
distribution  of  the  premium  according  to  sex  and  rate  of 
wage.  Technically,  the  British  system  imposes  the  com- 
pulsion to  insurance,  but  leaves  the  choice  of  carrier  to  the 
individual  insured  person.  The  local  administration  is 
in  the  hands  of  so-called  Insurance  Committees,  which 
consist  of  representatives  of  the  insured,  of  the  Physicians 
and  also  of  the  local  council  and  general  administration. 

The  insurance  against  unemployment  was  at  first 
much  more  limited  in  its  scope.  It  was  compulsory  only 
in  a  limited  number  of  trades  representing  construction  and 
engineering.  It  was  planned  to  include  not  more  than 
one-fifth  of  the  wage  earners  of  Great  Britain.  As  in  the 
case  of  the  health  insurance,  the  expense  is  divided  among 
employers,  employes  and  the  state.  But  instead  of  allowing 
options  as  to  the  carrier,  there  is  a  single  national 
unemployment  fund,  into  which  all  dues  flow,  and  from 
which  all  benefits  are  paid. 

As  we  have  repeatedly  insisted,  the  old  age  pensions 
and  social  insurance  are  of  importance  in  the  history  of 
social  work,  because  they  have  developed  as  protests 
against  poor  relief;  against  its  insufficiency,  against  its 
degrading  character,  and  against  its  social  injustice.  The 
ideal  purpose  of  social  insurance  is  to  prevent,  and  finally 
to  eradicate  poverty  and  the  consequent  need  of  relief  by 


210  SOCIAL  WORK 

meeting  the  problem  at  its  origin  rather  than  waiting  until 
the  effects  of  destitution  have  begun  to  be  felt. 

We  have  long  been  accustomed  to  protect  ourselves 
against  one  source  of  poverty  by  carrying  fire  insurance. 
By  this  means,  we  meet  in  a  business-like  fashion  the 
calamities,  which,  in  a  country  like  Russia,  give  rise  to  an 
enormous  amount  of  suffering.  Similarly,  we  have 
developed  commercial  schemes  of  life  insurance  which,  so 
far  as  they  can,  prevent  widows  and  orphans  from 
suddenly  becoming  destitute  upon  the  death  of  a  husband 
and  father. 

Of  course,  fire  insurance  and  life  insurance  do  not  by 
themselves  prevent  fire  or  death,  although  the  efforts  of 
the  best  companies  are  directed  along  preventive  lines. 
But,  at  least,  they  do  prevent  much  poverty  which  would 
otherwise  arise  from  these  incidents.  Similarly,  it  is 
pointed  out  by  the  Webbs  that  social  insurance  alone  will 
not  prevent  sickness,  accidents  and  unemployment ;  that  it 
will  provide,  after  all,  not  a  radical  cure  but  primarily  a 
treatment  of  symptoms.  Nevertheless,  accident  insurance 
has  greatly  stimulated  the  invention  and  employment  of 
preventive  measures,  and  so  has  had  a  real  influence 
in  reducing  the  number  of  casualties.  And  there  seems  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  newer  forms  of  insurance  will 
operate  in  a  similar  direction. 

We  have  now  traced  the  development  of  the  English 
Poor  Law  from  its  beginnings  in  the  repression  of  beg- 
ging, the  regulation  of  individual  alms,  and  the  fixing  of 
public  responsibility  upon  local  communities,  through  the 
development  of  a  national  system  of  relief,  to  the  recent 
efforts  to  supplant  charity  by  such  measures  as  those  we 
have  just  been  discussing.  We  have  seen  the  development 
in  England  of  a  technique  for  organizing  and  adminis- 
tering aid  to  the  poor.  We  have  followed  the  rise  of 


TRANSCENDING  THE  POOR  LAW          211 

national  responsibility  for  the  problems  of  poverty. 
Finally,  we  have  recognized  a  growing  consciousness  of 
the  inadequacy,  if  not  the  futility,  of  all  charity. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Reports  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Poor  Laws  and  Unem- 
ployment. 3  vols.  London :  Wyman  &  Sons,  1909. 

House  of  Commons  Session  Papers  of  1909,    Vol.  37. 

Bosanquet,  Helen  D. :  The  Poor  Law  Report  of  1909,  London : 
Macmillan,  1909. 

Webb,  Sidney  and  Beatrice:  English  Poor  Law  Policy.  London: 
Longmans  Green,  1910. 

Ministry  of  Health.  First  Annual  Report,  1919-1920.  Part  III. 
Administration  of  the  Poor  Law,  Unemployed  Workman  Act, 
Old  Age  Pensions  Acts. 

Chance,  Sir  Wm. :  Poor  Law  Reform.  The  Case  for  the  Guardians. 
London:  P.  S.  King,  1910. 

Muirhead,  John  H. :  By  What  Authority  f  The  principles  in  com- 
mon and  at  issue  in  the  reports  of  the  poor  law  commission. 
London:  P.  S.  King,  1009. 

Lubbock,  Gertrude :  Some  Poor  Relief  Questions;  with  the  argu- 
ments on  both  sides,  together  with  the  summary  of  the  reports 
of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Aged  Poor.  London :  Mur- 
ray, 1895. 

Sutherland,  W. :   Old  Age  Pensions.    London:  Methuen,   1907. 

Hoare,  Henry  J. :  Old  Age  Pensions;  their  actual  working  and  ascer- 
tained results  in  the  United  Kingdom.  London :  King,  1915. 

Hoffman,  F.  L. :  Methods  and  Results  of  National  Health  Insurance 
in  Great  Britain.  Nat  Civic  Fed.,  1920. 

Halsey,  Olga  S.,  and  Lasker,  Bruno:  The  British  System  of  Unem- 
ployment Insurance.  U.  S.  Bur.  Lab.  Stat.  Bui.  No.  212,  1917. 

Alden,  Percy :  Democratic  England.    New  York :  Macmillan,  1912, 

Rose,  John  H. :  The  Rise  and  Growth  of  Democracy  in  Great  Britain. 

Hayes,  Carlton  J.  H.:  British  Social  Politics.    Boston:  Ginn,  1913. 


PART  IV 

THE  MEDIEVAL  CHURCH  AND 
PHILANTHROPY 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING 

To  the  present  point  we  have,  in  addition  to  describing 
what  seem  to  be  the  outstanding  features  of  present-day 
social  work,  studied  two  of  its  forebears:  nineteenth 
century  humanitarianism  and  the  English  Poor  Law. 
Back  of  these  lie  the  ecclesiastical  charitMl  of  the  middle 
ages  and  the  mutual  aid  of  medieval  communities.  When 
we  have  examined  all  four,  we  shall  have  accounted  in  a 
general  way  for  the  rise  of  social  work  as  a  profession, 
with  its  numerous  but  more  or  less  correlated  remedial, 
preventive  and  constructive  agencies. 

Each  of  these  developments  has  brought  a  real  contri- 
bution of  permanent  value  even  though  it  might  be  bound 
up  with  some  very  undesirable  features.  The  great 
contribution  of  the  nineteenth  century  humanitarians  was 
the  doctrine  of  "  business  efficiency."  The  English,  in 
working  out  their  Poor  Law,  achieved  the  ideas  of  national 
resjKmsibility  for  the  problems  of  poverty  and  of  the 
inadequacy  of  all  charity.  The  Church,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  stimulated  and  cultivated  a  spirit  of  help- 
fulness to  all  men,  which  first  manifested  itself  in  forms 
devised  for  the  mutual  assistance  of  the  members  of  simple 
neighborhood  groups. 

RISE   OF  THE   DOCTRINE 

The  charities  of  the  Christian  Church  rested  so 
largely  on  the  doctrine  of  the  religious  merit  of  almsgiving 
that  it  is  worth  our  while  to  examine  this  in  some  detail. 

"5 


216  SOCIAL  WORK 

Just  when  this  doctrine  first  appeared  is  hard  to  say,  but 
there  is  pretty  clear  evidence  of  its  existence  among  the 
Hebrew  people  long  before  the  founding  of  Christianity. 

OLD  TESTAMENT  ORIGINS 

One  of  the  earliest  suggestions  of  the  idea  that  religious 
merit  is  to  be  obtained  through  rendering  assistance  to  the 
needy  appears  in  the  Mosaic  Law.  "  At  the  end  of  every 
three  years  thou  shalt  bring  forth  all  the  tithe  of  thine 
increase  in  the  same  year,  and  shalt  lay  it  up  within  thy 
gates:  and  the  Levite,  because  he  hath  no  portion  nor 
inheritance  with  thee,  and  the  sojourner,  and  the  father- 
less, and  the  widow,  that  are  within  thy  gates,  shall  come 
and  shall  eat  and  be  satisfied ;  that  Jehovah  thy  God  may 
bless  thee  in  all  the  work  of  thy  hand  which  thou  doest." 
(Deut.  xiv  128-29.)  However,  the  rewards  here  sug- 
gested appear  to  have  no  reference  to  another  life 
after  death. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  formulation  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  religious  merit  of  almsgiving  occurred 
during  the  Babylonian  captivity,  when  some  of  the  Jews 
were  currying  the  favor  of  their  masters  for  the  sake  of 
personal  advantage.  Then  it  was  that  their  leaders 
appealed  to  them  to  be  loyal  to  their  own  people,  in  spite 
of  temporal  discomfort,  because  of  the  religious  benefits 
involved.  However  this  may  have  been,  we  do  find 
through  the  Old  Testament  many  intimations  that  one 
might  "  break  off  his  iniquities  "  by  "  showing  mercy  to 
the  poor." 

After  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  Church,  and 
especially  after  its  recognition  by  Constantine,  this  idea 
began  to  assume  prominence.  Then  the  church  fathers 
went  back  and  gathered  up  excerpts  from  the  Bible  and 


RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING        217 

read  into  them,  very  likely,  many  things  which  they  did 
not  originally  signify. 

NEW  TESTAMENT  TEACHINGS 

They  found  in  the  New  Testament  as  well  as  the  Old 
many  verses  which  taught  this  doctrine,  or  into  which  it 
could  be  read.  Some  of  the  best  known  passages  are 
these:  "And  whosoever  shall  give  to  drink  unto  one 
of  these  little  ones  a  cup  of  cold  water  only,  in  the  name  of 
a  disciple,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  he  shall  in  no  wise  lose 
his  reward."  (Matt.  x:42.)  "  But  when  thou  makest  a 
feast,  bid  the  poor,  the  maimed,  the  lame,  the  blind :  and 
thou  shalt  be  blessed ;  because  they  have  not  wherewith  to 
recompense  thee;  for  thou  shalt  be  recompensed  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  just."  (Luke  xiv:  13-14.)  See  also 
Jesus'  description  of  the  Day  of  Judgment  (Matt. 
xxv :  31-46)  and  the  story  of  Zaccheus  (Mark  x:  17-22). 

TEACHINGS  OF  THE  CHURCH   FATHERS 

The  idea  that  the  giving  of  alms  constituted  a  sacrifice 
in  the  sense  of  a  religious  ceremony  seems  first  to  have 
appeared  in  the  teachings  of  the  church  fathers.  Thus 
Cyprian  said,  "  He  who  will  at  the  Day  of  Judgment 
reward  alms  and  good  works  listens  more  graciously  even 
today  to  a  prayer  if  it  is  accompanied  by  alms."  This 
same  notion  was  expressed  by  Origen  in  these  words: 
"  Happy  is  he  who  fasts  for  the  purpose  of  feeding  the 
poor."  The  Apostolic  Constitutions  also  gave  the  express 
injunction:  "  If  anyone  has  nothing  to  give,  let  him  fast 
and  apply  the  day's  share  to  the  saints." 

Referring  to  the  association  of  almsgiving  with 
fasting,  Uhlhorn  says :  "  However  admirable  may  be  the 
strength  of  the  love  which  thus  imposed  sacrifices 
on  itself  that  it  might  be  able  to  give  to  others,  we  must 


218  SOCIAL  WORK 

not  on  the  other  hand  ignore  the  fact  that  this  combination 
of  almsgiving  and  fasting  already  announced  a  corrup- 
tion of  almsgiving  by  secondary  motives  of  an  ascetic 
character.  Emphasis  was  at  least  laid  on  the  renunciation 
therein  shown,  as  well  as  on  the  love  of  the  brethren.  And 
it  was  just  this  notion  that  there  was  some  independent 
moral  value  in  self-deprivation  of  a  portion  of  earthly 
possessions  which  became,  as  we  shall  see,  extremely 
dangerous  to  charity ;  nay,  destroyed  its  inmost  core." 

So  long  as  the  Church  was  small  and  members  for  the 
most  part  acquainted  with  one  another,  there  was  little 
need  for  formal  relief  work.  But  with  the  increase  in 
numbers,  and  especially  with  the  increase  in  wealth,  after 
the  recognition  of  Christianity  by  Constantine,  the  church 
fathers  found  it  more  and  more  necessary  to  present  the 
claims  of  the  needy.  One  of  the  most  ardent  advocates  of 
almsgiving  was  Chrysostom,  who  was  Archbishop  of  Con- 
stantinople in  the  fourth  century.  In  one  of  his  homilies, 
we  find  these  words :  "  With  whatsoever  sins  then  thou 
mayest  be  burdened,  thy  charity  outweighs  them  all."  And 
in  another  homily,  the  following  significant  passage 
appears :  "To-day  begins  a  trade  in  alms,  for  we  see 
the  prisoners  and  the  poor;  we  see  those  who  wander 
about  the  market;  we  hear  how  they  cry,  and  weep,  and 
mourn;  we  have  a  wonderful  fair  before  our  eyes."  At  a 
fair,  however,  there  is  but  one  object ;  the  man  of  business 
has  no  other  aim  than  to  buy  goods  cheaply  and  to  sell 
them  dearly.  Such  a  fair  has  God  opened  to  us :  "  Buy 
the  works  of  righteousness  cheaply,  to  realize  in  the  future 
a  higher  price,  if  indeed  it  is  allowable  to  call  requital 
realization.  Here  righteousness  is  sold  cheap,  sold  for  an 
insignificant  piece  of  bread,  for  a  miserable  garment,  for 
a  cup  of  cold  water.  As  long  as  the  market  lasts,  let  us 
buy  alms,  or  rather  let  us  purchase  salvation  through  alms." 


RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING        219 

In  his  homilies  on  St.  John  and  the  Hebrews, 
Chrysostom  outlined  five  ways  of  absolution  of  sins: 
(i)  confession,  (2)  forgiveness  of  others,  (3)  alms- 
giving, (4)  prayers,  (5)  fasting.  "  Let  us  then  use  every 
means  to  wipe  off  filthiness.  But  first,  the  font  cleanseth, 
then  other  ways  also,  many  and  of  all  kinds.  For  God 
being  merciful  hath  even  after  this  given  us  various 
means  of  reconciliation,  of  all  which  the  first  is  that  by 
almsdoing.  '  By  almsdeeds,'  it  saith,  '  and  deeds  of  faith 
sins  are  cleansed  away.'  By  almsdoing,  I  do  not  mean 
that  which  is  maintained  by  injustice,  for  this  is  not  alms- 
doing,  but  savageness  and  inhumanity.  What  profits  it 
to  strip  one  man  and  clothe  another?  For  we  ought  to 
begin  action  with  mercy,  but  this  is  inhumanity.  If  we 
give  away  everything  that  we  have  got  from  other  people, 
it  is  no  gain  to  us.  And  this  Zaccheus  shows,  who  on  that 
occasion  said  that  he  propitiated  God  by  giving  four  times 
as  much  as  he  had  taken.  (Luke  xix:  8.)  But  we,  when 
we  plunder  unboundedly,  and  give  but  little,  think  that  we 
make  God  propitious,  whereas  we  do  rather  exasperate 
Him.  For  tell  me  if  thou  shouldst  drag  a  dead  and  rotten 
ass  from  waysides  and  lanes  and  bring  it  to  the  altar  would 
not  all  stone  thee  as  accursed  and  polluted?  Well  then,  if  I 
prove  that  a  sacrifice  polluted  by  plunder  is  more  polluted 

than  this,  what  defense  shall  we  obtain? And 

dost  thou  in  words  entreat  God  to  forget  thy  misdeeds, 
and  doest  thou  by  what  thou  thyself  doest,  robbing  and 
grasping,  and  placing  thy  sin  upon  altar,  cause  him  to 

remember  them  continually? '  No,'  saith  one,  *  not 

the  same  money,  but  other.'  Mockery  this,  and  trifling. 
Knowest  thou  not  that  if  one  drop  of  injustice 
fall  on  a  great  quantity  of  wealth,  the  whole  is  defiled? 
First  get  free  from  rapine,  and  then  show  forth 


220  SOCIAL  WORK 

< 

almsdeeds Now  if  he  who  brought  too  little 

angered  God,  when  one  gives  what  is  another's,  how  shall 
he  not  anger  Him?" 

PAPAL   INDULGENCES 

Perhaps  the  clearest  expression  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
religious  merit  of  almsgiving  is  to  be  found  in  the  indulg- 
ences authorized  by  the  popes  and  church  councils.  Thus 
the  Council  of  Ravenna,  in  1286,  accorded  a  year  of 
indulgences  to  bishops  who  served  four  indigents  a  meal 
on  each  day  of  the  week;  to  abbots  who  received  two;  and 
to  other  prelates,  deacons  and  archdeacons  who  performed 
the  same  service  for  at  least  one  unfortunate  person.  The 
form  of  a  papal  brief  of  1392  was  as  follows : 

"  Relaxation  of  seven  years  and  seven  quadragene  to 
penitents  who  on  the  principal  feasts  of  th^  year  and  those 
of  St.  James  in  the  month  of  July  and  the  dedication,  the 
usual  octaves  and  six  days;  and  of  a  hundred  days  to 
those  who  during  the  said  octaves  and  days  visit  and  give 
alms  for  the  sustentation  and  recreation  of  the  chapel  of 
St.  James'  poor  hospital  without  the  walls,  London." 

William,  Lord  Berkeley  directed  the  executors  of  his 
will  in  1492: 

"  to  purchase  a  pardon  from  the  court  of  Rome,  as 
large  as  may  be  had,  for  this  Chappie  (Longbridge),  from 
evensonge  to  evensonge,  in  the  feast  of  Trinity  for  ever, 
for  pleyne  remission  to  them  that  will  be  confessed 
and  contrite." 

Hospital  proctors  practically  became  peddlars  of  divine 
favor,  selling  the  forgiveness  of  sins  for  donations  to  their 
respective  institutions.  Thus  those  who  bought  pardon 
from  the  proctor  of  St.  James  at  Canterbury  were 
informed  that  the  benefit  of  thirty  thousand  Paternosters 
and  Ave  Marias  were  freely  imparted  to  them. 


RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING        221 

This  doctrine,  valuable  though  it  unquestionably  was 
as  a  means  of  stimulating  a  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  of 
helpfulness,  nevertheless,  seems  very  frequently  to  have 
degenerated  into  what  was  essentially  a  commercial  propo- 
sition. There  were,  on  the  one  hand,  professional 
almsgivers.  Very  often,  neither  they  nor  the  original 
donors  appear  to  have  been  very  much  interested  in  the 
effects  of  their  alms  on  the  recipients.  They  seem  to  have 
been  chiefly  concerned  about  the  profits  in  the  form  of 
the  salvation  of  their  souls.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
grew  up  a  profession  of  begging.  The  asking  of  alms 
was  the  beggars'  means  of  getting  a  living.  Their 
business  was  asking  alms  and  praying  for  the  souls  of  the 
givers.  But  it  must  have  been  little  indeed  that  they  cared 
about  the  donors'  salvation.  What  they  wanted  was  to  get 
all  they  could  out  of  them.  How  similar  to  the  ordinary 
business  transaction  of  to-day ! 

It  is  quite  possible  to  overdo  this  materialistic 
interpretation.  The  Church  with  its  doctrine  of  the 
religious  merit  of  almsgiving  had  provided  a  form  which 
practically  all  charity  had  to  take.  Even  a  man  who  put 
himself  fairly  completely  into  the  place  of  the  beggar 
would  very  likely,  nay  quite  certainly,  make  his  gift  in  the 
established  form.  So,  it  is  conceivable  that  a  man  might 
have  a  genuine  sympathy  for  the  beggars,  but  offer  his 
assistance  in  the  stereotyped  manner  laid  down  by 
ecclesiastical  dogma  and  common  practice. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  DOCTRINE 
INDIVIDUAL  ALMSGIVING 

The  influence  of  this  preaching  by  the  Church  will 
appear  more  clearly  if  we  examine  some  specific  instances 
of  individual  almsgiving.  Aside  from  the  dropping  of 


222  SOCIAL  WORK 

money  in  the  box  at  church  and  payments  to  collectors 
who  might  come  to  the  house,  the  most  common  forms 
of  individual  alms  were  the  endowment  of  hospitals  and 
the  provision  for  distribution  of  food  or  clothing  at  one's 
funeral  service  and  its  anniversaries. 

As  an  example  of  the  former,  we  find  that  in  1375 
Barthelomeus  Boudart  restored  Vaucouleurs,  an  institu- 
tion destroyed  by  the  enemy.  He  did  this  in  a  spirit  of 
piety  and  anxiety  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul :  "  pietate 
motus,  ac  suae  salutis  non  immemor."  A  citizen  of  Pistoja 
expressed  the  same  thought  in  his  last  will  and  testament, 
in  1330.  "  The  said  testator  leaves  of  his  goods  for  the 
healing  and  saving  of  his  soul  and  those  of  his  parents  a 
thousand  and  seventy  Florentine  denarii "  for  a  hospital 
which  he  goes  on  to  describe.  An  English  statute  of  1414 
speaks  of  "  many  hospitals  founded  as  well  by  the  noble 
kings  of  this  realm,  and  lords  and  ladies,  both  spiritual 
and  temporal,  as  well  as  by  others  of  divers  estates,  to  the 
honor  of  God  and  of  His  glorious  Mother  in  aid  and  merit 
of  the  souls  of  the  said  founders." 

In  Paris,  Denis  de  Mauroy,  procurer-general, 
expressed  himself  thus:  (1411)  "I  will  that  from  the 
day  of  my  death  until  eight  days  thereafter  there  be  dis- 
tributed daily  three  alms  for  God  in  honor  of  the  blessed 
Trinity  of  Paradise,  to  three  poor  people,  furnishing  to 
each  one  a  pint  of  wine,  a  three-gram  loaf  of  bread  and  a 
little  white  wine,  and  that  they  be  charged  to  pray  God  for 
me  and  for  my  said  company." 

Sir  John  Fastolf,  whose  will  is  dated  1459,  established, 
"  within  the  great  mansion  at  Castre  by  him  lately  edified, 
a  college  of  vi  religious  men,  monks  or  secular  priests,  and 
vi  poor  folk,"  for  purposes  which  were  essentially  those  of 
a  chantry, — "to  pray  for  his  soul,  and  the  souls  of  his 
wife,  his  father  and  mother  and  others  that  he  was 


RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING        223 

beholden  to  in  perpetuity."  Many  a  testator  would  have 
echoed  the  request  of  Fastolf  that  his  goods  might  be  so 
faithfully  distributed  in  "almsful  deeds  and  charitable 
works  "  that  he  might  obtain  "  the  more  hasty  deliverance 
of  his  soul  from  the  painful  flames  of  Purgatory." 
A  testator  at  Bury,  in  1463,  thought  it  worth  while  to 
mention  that  he  would  "  no  common  dole  have;"  what  he 
desired  was  that  every  poor  man  and  woman  should  have 
a  penny,  and  two  children  a  penny,  but  only  on  condition 
that  they  were  present  at  his  solemn  dirge,  "  to  pray  for  " 
him,  and  this  "  at  the  discretion  of  his  executors." 

Matthew  Ernest,  of  London,  in  1506,  provided  that 
the  church  wardens  of  the  parish  of  St.  Dunstan  should  on 
every  Saturday  give  a  penny  apiece  to  five  poor  people, 
alternately  men  and  women.  At  the  same  time,  the 
recipients  were  to  be  enjoined  to  pray  for  the  soul  of  their 
benefactors.  The  same  motive  is  clearly  expressed  by 
Henry  de  Blois,  bishop  of  Winchester,  in  his  reference  to 
a  hospital,  "  which  I  for  the  health  of  my  soul  and  the 
souls  of  my  predecessors  and  of  the  kings  of  England 
have  founded." 

The  devotion  of  Queen  Maud  to  the  service  of  the 
lepers,  about  noo,  is  of  particular  interest  in  this  con- 
nection. Aelred  of  Rievaulx  relates  how  Prince  David 
visited  her  and  found  the  house  full  of  lepers,  in  the  midst 
of  whom  stood  the  queen.  She  washed,  dried  and  even 
kissed  their  feet,  telling  her  brother  that  in  so  doing 
she  was  kissing  the  feet  of  the  Eternal  King.  When  she 
begged  him  to  follow  her  example,  he  withdrew  smiling, 
afterwards  confessing  to  Aelred: — "I  was  sore  afraid 
and  answered  that  I  could  on  no  account  endure  it,  for  as 
yet  I  did  not  know  the  Lord,  nor  had  His  spirit  been 
revealed  to  me." 


224  SOCIAL  WORK 

Of  Walter  de  Lucy,  the  chronicler  of  Battle 
Abbey  writes : — 

"  He  especially  compassionated  the  forlorn  condition 
of  those  afflicted  with  leprosy  and  elephantiasis,  whom  he 
was  so  far  from  shunning,  that  he  frequently  waited  upon 
them  in  person,  washing  their  hands  and  feet,  and,  with 
the  utmost  cordiality,  imprinting  upon  them  the  soothing 
kisses  of  love  and  piety." 

In  the  cases  just  cited,  it  is  the  practise  of  washing  and 
kissing  the  feet  of  pilgrims  and  lepers  and  the  conspicuous 
type  of  self-deprivation  that  indicate  where  the  interest 
was  centered.  The  fact  that  these  things,  rather  than  the 
rehabilitation  of  needy  families,  were  recorded  and 
approved  shows  how  thoroughly  medieval  philanthropy 
was  permeated  with  the  idea  that  religious  merit  is 
acquired  through  alms.  It  is  also  only  fair  to  add  that  the 
instances  to  which  we  have  referred  are  typical  of 
thousands  of  records  to  which  any  student  of  history  has 
ready  access. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  DOCTRINE 

ENCOURAGEMENT  OF  BEGGING  AND   IDLENESS 

With  this  continued  emphasis  upon  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  givers,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  particular 
need  of  the  recipients  should  often  be  overlooked.  Conse- 
quently, there  not  only  was  failure  to  provide  the  things 
most  needed,  but  there  was  encouragement  of  begging 
and  idleness.  This  is  clearly  indicated  by  Fuller  in  his 
"Church  History  "  in  the  paragraph  which  we  quoted  in 
a  previous  chapter.1 

The  shortcomings  of  indiscriminate  almsgiving  are 
recognized  by  the  Catholic  kistorians  as  well  as  by  the 

1  See  page  177 


RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING        225 

Protestants  and  those  without  special  interest  in  the 
Church.  Thus  Lallemand  says,  "  We  cannot  deceive  our- 
selves. These  liberalities  necessitated  by  the  misfortunes 
of  the  times  favored  idleness."  Again,  "  These  largesses, 
these  general  alms,  these  allowances,  which  followed 
funerals  without  possible  distinction  between  the  real  poor 
and  the  incorrigibly  idle,  gave  rise  to  many  abuses." 

The  same  admission  is  made  by  another  Catholic 
historian,  Georg  Ratzinger.  His  conclusions  are  sum- 
marized by  Ashley  in  the  following  words :  "  In  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  too  often  in  the  fourteenth, 
the  monks  yielded  to  idleness  and  luxury,  and  love 
for  the  poor  grew  cold ;  the  careful  investigation  and  relief 
of  distress  among  the  laboring  population  of  the 
neighborhood  was  given  up;  and  nothing  remained  but 
indiscriminate  almsgiving  at  the  convent  gate.  And 
Ratzinger  points  out  that  even  with  the  best  intentions, 
the  distribution  of  alms  at  a  number  of  centres  scattered 
very  unevenly  over  the  country,  and  without  any  system  of 
joint  action,  could  not  but  be  inadequate  and  hurtful.  'The 
monasteries,  hospitals,  etc.,  were  without  what  is  the  first 
requisite  for  an  orderly  relief  of  the  poor — unity,  concen- 
tration, organization.  Every  hospital,  each  convent  gave 
alms,  not  only  to  the  people  of  the  district,  but  also  to  all 
strangers  who  chose  to  apply,  without  having  any  power  of 
control  over  them ; '  and  he  adds,  as  the  natural  conse- 
quence, that '  professional  beggary,  even  with  the  harshest 
laws,  could  not  be  overcome.' ' 

If  further  evidence  were  needed  of  the  utter  failure  of 
the  charities  of  the  medieval  church  to  solve  the  problems 
of  poverty,  it  could  be  found  in  the  dozens  of  laws  passed 
in  every  European  country  for  the  repression  of  begging. 
Some  of  these  we  have  already  cited  in  our  study  of  the 
English  Poor  Law.  Surely,  the  nations  of  western 


226  SOCIAL  WORK 

Europe  would  not  have  resorted  to  whipping,  branding, 
galleys,  deportation  and  even  slavery  and  death,  as 
punishments  for  begging,  unless  this  had  been  a  very 
serious  evil. 

IGNORING  OF  FUNDAMENTAL  PROBLEMS 

But  an  even  more  serious  effect  of  the  philanthropy 
which  was  based  on  the  religious  merit  of  almsgiving  was 
the  ignoring  of  fundamental  social  problems.  From  the 
very  beginning  of  the  Christian  Church,  there  was  an 
acceptance  of  the  established  order.  This  was  doubtless 
due  to  the  hope  for  an  early  return  of  the  Lord  and  a 
feeling  that  injustice  in  this  world  mattered  little  because 
it  would  so  soon  be  rectified  in  the  next.  Therefore,  the 
Church  did  not  undertake  to  destroy  the  institution  of 
human  slavery.  It  advised  the  slaves  instead  of  caring  for 
freedom,  rather  to  make  good  use  of  their  calling  as  slaves. 
Indeed,  the  Church  itself  became  in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries  the  owner  of  a  large  number  of  slaves.  From 
the  passing  of  the  Apostles  to  the  end  of  the  Crusades  the 
expectation  of  an  early  return  of  the  Lord  was  gradually 
given  up,  but  the  notion  that  the  social  order  was  subject 
to  change  did  not  enter  men's  minds  for  many  centuries. 
The  unequal  distribution  of  property,  the  social  distinc- 
tions between  rich  and  poor,  the  subjection  of  women,  and 
other  injustices  which  have  by  no  means  entirely  vanished, 
were  long  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  no  efforts 
were  put  forth  for  their  elimination. 

For  further  evidence  that  the  teachings  of  the  Church 
meant  the  ignoring  of  certain  fundamental  problems  and, 
indirectly  at  least,  obstructed  social  justice,  we  quote  the 
following  passage  from  Lallemand,  who,  it  should  be 
remembered,  takes  the  orthodox  Catholic  position  that 


RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING        227 

all  charity  is  a  function  of  the  Church  alone,  and  should  be 
administered  in  accordance  with  its  teachings. 

"It  is  customary  in  some  circles  to  quote  isolated 
phrases  of  St.  John  Chrysostom,  of  St.  Basil,  or  other 
Christian  orators  of  that  period,  with  the  following  com- 
ment :  '  See,  these  men  are  contemptuous  of  private 
property.  They  are  enemies  of  wealth,  democrats  stirring 
up  the  crowd  to  take  by  main  force  that  which  is  denied 
them,  veritable  precursors  of  our  modern  socialists.' 

"  Nothing  is  farther  from  the  truth.  The  fathers  of 
the  Church  take  pains  to  preach  resignation  and  patience 
to  the  poor,  showing  them  the  future  reward  that  will  be 
theirs  if  they  bear  their  misfortunes  in  a  Christian  manner. 
They  oppose  enviousness  and  revolution,  declaring  that 
the  rich  man  is  accountable  only  to  God  for  the  use  of  his 
wealth.  The  conclusion  of  their  most  passionate  sermons 
on  behalf  of  the  oppressed  always  includes  an  ardent  appeal 
for  charity,  not  a  provocation  to  spoliation. 

"  '  I  have  warned  the  rich,'  cries  St.  Augustine.  '  Now 
it  is  for  you  poor  people  to  listen  to  me.  Give,  but  be  wary 
of  taking  anything.  Stifle  covetousness  within  you.  You 
have  the  entire  world  in  common  with  the  rich  man,  but 
you  do  not  have  his  house  and  estate  in  common  with  him. 
You  possess  in  common  with  him  the  sun  by  day  to  give 
you  light  and  make  your  work  fruitful.  Seek  to  gain  that 
which  should  suffice  for  your  nourishment,  but  beware  of 
demanding  more.' ' 

In  such  words  as  these  has  the  church  often  sought  to 
make  the  poor  contented  with  their  lot,  and  look  to  the  life 
after  death  for  the  good  things  which  are  denied  them  in 
this  world.  Moreover,  it  seems  to  have  been  because  of  the 
philosophy  back  of  these  words  that  the  Church  often 
has  not  been  the  leader  in  social  reform,  but  has  rather 


228  SOCIAL  WORK 

been  found  on  the  side  of  conservatism  and  reaction.  This, 
of  course,  has  not  been  universally  true,  but  it  has  been 
so  generally  so  that  it  seems  a  just  characterization  of  the 
ecclesiastical  position. 

AN  INCENTIVE  TO  PHILANTHROPY 

The  teaching  of  the  religious  merit  of  almsgiving  has 
unquestionably  encouraged  kindly  feeling  and  sympathy. 
It  assuredly  led  to  the  relief  of  much  suffering  in  a  day 
when  everyone  lived  in  a  little  neighborhood  group  and 
regarded  all  outsiders  with  suspicion.  It  provided  a  tech- 
nique for  the  extending  of  social  relations.  These  were 
the  contributions  of  this  doctrine.  But  at  the  same  time, 
it  is  clear  that  its  application  encouraged  pauperism 
and  obstructed  the  solution  of  fundamental  economic  and 
social  problems.  It  seems  fair  to  say  that  the  doctrine  of 
the  religious  merit  of  almsgiving  has  served  a  valuable 
purpose  in  the  development  of  philanthropy,  but  that  its 
usefulness  is  long  since  outworn. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

I 
General 

Catholic  Encyclopedia.    New  York:   Appleton,   1907-1912. 
Schaff-Herzog  Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Knowledge.    New  York: 

Funk  and  Wagnalls,  1908. 
Lea,  H.  C. :  A  History  of  Auricular  Confession  and  Indulgences  in 

the  Latin  Church.    Philadelphia,  1896. 

Church  History 

Walker,   W.:   A    History   of   the   Christian   Church.    New   York: 

Scribners,  1918. 
Ayer,  Jos.  C. :  A  Source  Book  for  Ancient  Church  History,  from  the 

apostolic  age  to  the  close  of  the  conciliar  period.    New  York: 

Scribners,  1913. 


RELIGIOUS  MERIT  OF  ALMSGIVING       229 

Canfield,  L.  H. :  The  Early  Persecutions  of  the  Christians.    New 

York:   Columbia   University,   1913. 

Bigg,  Chas. :  The  Church's  Task   Under  the  Roman  Empire.    Ox- 
ford: Clarendon  Press,  1905. 
Archer,  T.  A.,  and  Kingsford,  C.  L. :  The  Crusades;  the  story  of  the 

Latin  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem.     New  York:  Putnams,  1895. 
Brehier,  Louis:  L'£glise  et  f  Orient  au  Moyen  Age:  les  Croisades. 

Paris:  Lecoffre,  Gabalda,  1907. 
l^arde,  Andre:  The  Latin  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages.    Trans,  by 

Archibald  Alexander.    New  York:  Scribners,  1915. 
Barry,  Wm.  F. :  The  Papal  Monarchy  from  St.  Gregory  the  Great 

to  Boniface  VIII  (590-1303).     New  York:  Putnams,  1902. 
Smith,   A.   L.:   Church  and  State  in   the  Middle   Ages.    Oxford: 

Clarendon  Press,  1913. 
Ageorges,  Joseph:  La  Vie  et  ^Organisation  du  Clerge  sous  I'ancicn 

Regime.     Paris,  1905. 

Baur,  F.  C. :  Die  christliche  Kirche  des  Mittelalters.    Tubingen,  1861. 
Fisher,  Geo.  P.:  The  Reformation.    New  York,  Scribners,  1906. 
Lindsay,  Thos.  M. :  A  History  of  the  Reformation.    New  York: 

Scribners,  1906-07. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL 
CHARITIES 

IT  would  be  possible,  if  we  were  so  inclined,  to  trace 
the  origins  of  ecclesiastical  charities  back  to  the  tithes 
imposed  by  the  ancient  Hebrews  before  the  Babylonian 
Captivity,  but  for  our  purposes  it  is  sufficient  to  see  how 
mutual  aid  in  the  simple  groups  of  early  Christians 
gradually  developed  into  the  very  elaborate  system  of 
ecclesiastical  charities  which  was  characteristic  of  the 
middle  ages. 

THE  EARLY  CHURCH 
THE  ERA  OF  PERSECUTIONS 

The  descriptions  which  we  have  of  the  early  Christian 
Church  indicate  that  it  bore  very  much  the  character  of  a 
big  family.  The  numbers  were  relatively  small,  and  they 
were  united  on  the  one  hand  by  the  enthusiasm  of  a 
new-found  faith,  and  on  the  other  by  the  persecutions 
from  without.  The  second  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Acts 
pictures  to  us  the  custom  of  eating  together.  These  com- 
mon meals  were  doubtless  primarily  a  religious  observance, 
but  being  daily  participated  in  they  constituted  a  powerful 
bond  of  union  among  the  early  Christians. 

In  still  another  way  was  the  unity  of  this  simple  group 
manifested.  The  Church  was  open  to  all  people  of  all 
social  classes  and  all  races.  Slaves,  bondservants,  and  free 
Roman  citizens  were  taken  in  on  equal  terms.  Greeks, 
Romans  and  Jews  sat  down  to  the  love- feasts  together. 
This  did  not  mean,  however,  that  the  Church  ignored  the 
230 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  231 

existence  of  social  classes.  The  Epistles  of  Paul  show 
clearly  that  the  Christians  accepted  the  institution  of 
slavery,  and  made  little  if  any  effort  to  overthrow  it.  The 
position  apparently  was  that  this  was  a  thing  of  the  flesh, 
and  it  was  only  spiritual  relations  that  counted.  More- 
over, they  doubtless  looked  to  the  world-to-come  for  the 
alteration  of  social  and  economic  inequalities  of  this  world. 
The  belief  in  the  early  return  of  the  Lord  made  this 
postponement  of  social  justice  much  easier  to  endure. 

Another  bond  which  held  the  early  Christians  together 
as  a  simple  community  was  the  holding  of  goods  in  com- 
mon. Thus  we  read  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Acts  that 
"  the  multitude  of  them  who  believed  were  of  one  heart 
and  soul ;  and  not  one  of  them  said  that  aught  of  the  things 
which  he  possessed  was  his  own;  but  they  had  all  things 
common."  However,  it  seems  that  communism  was  not 
obligatory  nor  long  continued,  but  it  does  seem  to  have 
had  sufficient  vogue  to  help  bind  the  Christians  together  in 
a  simple  family  group. 

Correlated  with  the  more  or  less  common  holding  of 
property  was  the  idea  that  everyone  should  support 
himself,  or  that  each  should  contribute  in  proportion 
to  his  ability  to  the  support  of  the  group.  Thus,  we  find 
Paul  writing  to  the  Thessalonians :  "If  any  will  not 
work  neither  let  him  eat."  However,  with  the  growth  of 
the  Church,  there  appear  to  have  been  some  who  were 
ready  to  impose  upon  their  neighbors  and  to  take  unfair 
advantage  of  the  community.  Paul  was  doubtless 
referring  to  these  when  he  continued  in  the  sajne  Epistle: 
"  For  we  hear  of  some  that  walk  among  you  disorderly, 
that  work  not  at  all,  but  are  busy-bodies.  Now  them  that 
are  such,  we  command  and  exhort  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  that  in  quietness  they  work  and  eat  their  bread." 

The  persecutions  of  the  first  three  centuries  not  only 


232  SOCIAL  WORK 

united  the  Christians  very  closely,  but  also  forced  the 
Church  to  be  fairly  exclusive.  The  espionage  of 
the  authorities  made  it  positively  dangerous  to  take  in 
the  stranger  unless  he  could  show  credentials.  Because 
of  the  persecutions,  it  became  necessary  for  the  churches 
to  assist  one  another  in  times  of  special  need.  The  New 
Testament  refers  to  a  number  of  collections  taken  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Jerusalem  Church. 

The  first  formal  action  for  the  care  of  unfortunate 
Christians  may  be  indicated  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  Acts: 
"  Now  in  these  days  when  the  number  of  disciples  was 
multiplying,  there  arose  a  (murmuring  of  the  Grecian 
Jews  against  the  Hebrews  because  their  widows  were 
neglected  in  the  daily  administration;  and  the  twelve 
called  the  multitude  of  disciples  unto  them  and  said :  '  It 
is  not  fit  that  we  should  forsake  the  Word  of  God  and  serve 
the  tables.  Look  ye  out  therefore,  brethren,  from  among 
you  seven  men  of  good  report,  full  of  the  spirit  and  of 
wisdom,  whom  we  may  appoint  over  this  business.' ' 
This  practise  of  appointing  deacons,  which  was  begun  in 
Jerusalem,  seems  to  have  spread  to  all  of  the  churches. 
It  is  indicated,  moreover,  in  the  letters  to  Timothy  that 
some  women  were  given  a  share  in  relief  work  and  that 
widows  were  sometimes  employed  by  the  church  for 
this  purpose. 

The  entertainment  of  strangers  is  very  frequently 
spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament,  and  it  is  quite  natural  that 
much  stress  should  have  been  laid  upon  the  practise  of 
hospitality,  because  the  church  had  a  strong  missionary 
character,  and  every  member  probably  regarded  it  as  his 
duty  to  spread  the  Gospel.  The  command,  "  Go  ye  into 
all  the  world  and  teach  all  nations "  was  taken  quite 
literally.  Hence,  it  should  not  astonish  us  to  find  much 
moving  from  place  to  place  among  the  Christians  of  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  233 

earliest  times.  The  hospitality  of  the  Church  came  after 
a  time  to  be  abused  by  idlers,  as  well  as  by  spies.  There- 
fore, it  was  necessary  to  take  precautions  for  keeping  these 
undesirable  and  dangerous  persons  away.  It  became 
customary  not  to  receive  a  brother  unless  he  could 
authenticate  himself  to  the  church  by  a  letter 
of  introduction. 

An  important  phase  of  early  Christian  charity  was  the 
visiting  of  Christians  in  prisons  and  ransoming  those  who 
were  made  captives.  In  the  course  of  the  persecutions  many 
of  them  were  condemned  to  the  galleys,  to  quarries  or  to 
mines,  where  they  had  to  perform  very  hard  labor  under 
exceedingly  difficult  conditions.  The  purpose  of  the 
visitation  was  partly  to  provide  for  their  physical  needs, 
partly  to  cheer  them  up,  but  particularly  to  encourage  them 
to  persevere  in  Christian  faith. 

The  Agape,  or  love- feast  began,  as  we  have  seen, 
simply  as  the  common  meal  of  a  group  of  people  who  were 
sharing  their  all.  After  a  time  the  ceremonial  aspect  of 
this  came  to  be  more  emphasized,  and  it  became  principally 
a  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  At  the  same  time,  it 
was  made  a  means  of  feeding  the  poor.  But  in  many  of 
the  churches,  it  seems  to  have  become  a  fashionable 
banquet  for  the  bishops  and  other  prominent  persons  in 
which  the  poor  had  little  or  nothing  to  eat. 

Some  special  attention  was  given  to  the  care  of 
orphans  and  foundlings,  largely  no  doubt  as  a  humani- 
tarian effort,  and  partly  as  a  means  of  saving  them  to  the 
Church.  The  bishop  was  usually  responsible  for  seeing 
that  dependent  children  were  brought  up  at  the  expense  of 
the  Church.  The  girls  were  to  be  given,  when  of  mar- 
riageable age,  to  Christian  husbands,  and  the  boys  were 
supposed  to  learn  some  trade  and  then  be  provided  with 
tools  and  placed  in  a  position  to  earn  their  own  living. 


234  SOCIAL  WORK 

As  we  have  already  suggested,  the  charity  of  the  early 
Christian  Church  began  simply  as  a  form  of  mutual  aid 
among  the  members  of  a  simple  group.  As  their  numbers 
grew  the  methods  of  giving  relief  became  more  formal. 
But  throughout  the  era  of  the  persecutions,  that  is,  the 
first  three  centuries,  relief  was  practically  restricted  to 
members  of  the  Church.  Still  there  are  instances  of  its 
extension  to  outsiders.  Thus,  when  there  was  a  pestilence 
at  Carthage,  Cyprian  preached:  "If  we  only  do  good  to 
those  who  do  good  to  us,  what  do  we  more  than  the 
heathens  and  publicans?  If  we  are  the  children  of  God 
who  makes  the  sun  to  shine  upon  the  good  and  bad  and 
sends  rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust,  let  us  prove  it  by  our 
actions  by  blessing  those  who  curse  us  and  doing  good  to 
those  who  persecute  us."  According  to  Eusebius,  similar 
aid  to  outsiders  in  time  of  an  epidemic  occurred  at 
Alexandria  and  at  Rome. 

FROM    CONSTANTINE  TO   GREGORY 

With  the  conversion  of  Constantine,  Christianity 
ceased  to  be  a  persecuted  religion.  The  Edict  of  Milan  in 
313  granted  freedom  of  religion  to  all  faiths,  but  in  the 
course  of  time  Christianity  became  practically  the  state 
church.  This  laid  the  foundation  for  later  religious  wars, 
and  for  persecutions  by  the  Christians.  Thus  the  demo- 
cratic principle  of  Christianity  did  not  come  to  immediate 
fruition.  Society  was  divided  into  Christians  and  pagans, 
so  far  as  the  ruling  view-point  was  concerned. 

The  Volkerwanderung,  the  wars  between  the  Romans 
and  Teutons,  meant  the  overrunning  of  all  of  civilized 
Europe,  devastations,  confiscation,  captivity,  poverty  and 
misery  of  all  kinds.  The  establishment  of  the  Teutonic 
kingdoms  restored  a  measure  of  order,  but  there  was  a 
clash  of  the  old  mores  with  the  new.  Serfdom  was 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  235 

growing  very  rapidly.  The  poor  sought  the  protection 
of  the  wealthy  and  strong.  The  wealthy  needed  men  to 
work  their  estates,  and  retainers  to  fight  the  invader. 
The  Church  began  to  hold  and  to  acquire  property.  It 
soon  owned  many  estates  on  which  were  many  church 
serfs  and  even  slaves.  Some  of  the  bishops  became  very 
wealthy  and  haughty.  Democratic  relations  disappeared, 
not  only  as  between  Christians  and  others,  but  even  within 
the  Church. 

During  the  three  hundred  years  between  the  recogni- 
tion of  Christianity  by  Constantine  and  the  development 
of  the  Papacy  under  Gregory,  the  methods  and  agencies  of 
relief  were  survivals  of  those  already  described.  There 
was,  however,  one  important  innovation;  namely,  the 
establishment  of  the  xenodochia.  These  were  institutions 
for  all  sorts  of  persons  who  needed  relief;  orphans, 
widows,  the  aged,  sick,  poverty  stricken  and  travellers. 
They  were  usually  attached  to  some  church,  or  later  to  a 
monastery,  and  located  along  a  main  route  of  travel.  They 
were  made  necessary  by  the  increase  in  the  numbers  of 
Christians  to  a  point  where  neither  travellers  nor  the 
various  needy  folk  could  be  taken  care  of  in  private  homes, 
however  hospitable. 

During  all  this  time  the  power  of  the  Bishops  at  Rome 
was  increasing  and,  as  Popes,  they  were  able  to  a  certain 
extent  to  regulate  and  standardize  the  charities  of  the 
various  churches  and  religious  orders.  It  was  during 
this  period  that  monasticism  developed  to  a  position  of 
importance.  St.  Benedict,  one  of  its  conspicuous  founders, 
belonged  to  the  sixth  century.  The  spirit  of  this  new 
movement  is  thus  described  by  Uhlhorn :  "  Men  despaired 
of  pervading  the  whole  mass  with  the  leaven  of  the  gospel, 
and  were  contented  that  there  should  be  individual  saints 
and  perfect  Christians.  The  genuinely  ancient  notion,  the 


236  SOCIAL  WORK 

distinction  between  philosophers  and  the  common  people, 
the  aristocratic  feature  by  which  ancient  ethic  is  perme- 
ated, again  found  acceptance  in  Christianity  and  in  entire 
correspondence  with  ancient  ethics,  the  contemplative  life 
of  the  Christian  philosophers,  of  the  monks,  was  esteemed 
as  higher  and  better  than  the  life  of  ordinary  Christians, 
living  and  working  in  the  world." 

FROM  GREGORY  TO  CHARLEMAGNE 

During  the  two  centuries  between  the  elevation  of 
Gregory  to  the  papacy  and  the  crowning  of  Charlemagne, 
feudalism  became  quite  general  and  made  European 
society  a  hierarchy  of  castes.  This  economic  and  political 
development  reflected  itself  in  the  Church,  whose  demo- 
cratic principle  was  more  and  mbre  lost  sight  of. 

The  mutual  aid  of  the  simple  neighborhood  groups, 
such  as  comprised  the  membership  of  the  early  churches, 
was  not  organized  charity  in  the  exact  sense.  Neither  was 
the  care  which  the  bishops  as  feudal  over-lords,  gave  to 
their  serfs.  Organized  charities  generally  have  been  called 
into  being  by  the  breakdown  of  such  primary  social  rela- 
tionships. Charity,  as  such,  was  the  aid  given  to  persons 
who  did  not  have  those  intimate  relations  with  the  donor. 
It  was  given  primarily  to  detached  individuals. 

Now  the  occasions  of  detachment  were  pilgrimages  to 
holy  shrines,  the  running  away  of  serfs,  and  wars  which 
accompanied  the  Volkerwanderung,  and  the  rise  of 
Mohammedanism.  Other  causes  of  poverty  and  distress 
were  the  frequent  famines,  due  to  crop  failures,  bad 
winters,  and  inadequate  means  of  transportation.  There 
were  also  frequent  epidemics  caused  by  insanitary  living 
conditions  and  lack  of  medical  science. 

During  these  centuries,  there  was  nothing  that  could 
properly  be  called  public  relief.  The  Church  in  its  various 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  237 

aspects  was  almost  the  sole  agency  for  the  care  of  the 
needy.  The  parish  was  especially  responsible  for  its  own 
poor.  The  money  was  usually  obtained  from  tithes,  which 
were  divided  into  four  parts :  one  each  for  the  bishop,  the 
clergy,  the  church  repairs  and  the  poor.  The  relief  might 
be  administered  by  distributions  from  the  church,  or  by 
care  in  a  xenodochium. 

Even  more  important  as  an  agency  of  relief  was  the 
monastery.  Among  the  rules  of  some  of  the  monastic 
orders  were  a  requirement  of  poverty  and  devotion  to  the 
relief  of  distress.  The  monasteries  found  the  source  of 
their  distributions  in  the  income  from  their  estates,  dona- 
tions, legacies  and  collections.  Sometimes  they  gave 
indiscriminately  to  all  who  came  to  the  abbey  door; 
sometimes  they  carried  food  to  the  poor  in  their  homes ; 
and  sometimes  they  provided  maintenance  in  the  xenodo- 
chium or  hospital,  as  it  was  frequently  called. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  popes,  bishops  and  lesser 
clergy  gave  as  individuals  for  the  support  of  people  on 
indigent  lists,  and  established  foundations  for  institutional 
care.  These  lists  of  the  poor,  called  matricula,  were  also 
kept  by  some  of  the  monasteries  and  parish  churches. 
They  were  supposed  to  show  who  were  eligible 
for  assistance. 

Begging  had  become  quite  general,  in  spite  of  efforts 
of  the  Church  to  discourage  it.  Sometimes  beggars  were 
given  permission  to  beg  at  church  doors.  The  continued 
practice  of  hospitality  to  pilgrims,  the  preaching  of  the 
religious  merit  of  almsgiving,  and  the  indiscriminate 
doles  from  monastery  gates  were  chiefly  responsible  for 
encouraging  beggary. 

Medical  relief  was  usually  given  in  the  xenodochia. 
Some  of  the  nobles  retained  physicians  in  their  house- 
holds, but  their  skill  was  very  limited.  Bleeding  was  a 


238  SOCIAL  WORK 

common  practice.  The  bulk  of  the  populace  depended 
upon  magic,  sorcery,  incantations,  talismans,  charms  and 
enchanted  herbs,  or  took  long  pilgrimages  to  pray  at  the 
tombs  of  the  saints  for  bodily  healing. 

In  western  Europe  the  xenodochium  continued  as  a 
catch-all.  But  in  the  East  abundant  resources  and 
comparative  peace  until  the  rise  of  Mohammedanism  in 
the  seventh  century,  made  it  possible  to  develop  separate 
institutions  for  the  varied  groups  of  needy  persons.  The 
xenodochia  became  institutions  chiefly  for  travellers  and 
strangers  without  means.  In  addition,  there  were  institu- 
tions known  as  nosochomia  for  the  care  of  the  sick, 
brephotrophia  for  the  care  of  dependent  children,  and 
gerontochia  for  the  aged.  In  the  West,  this  development 
of  specialized  institutions  was  retarded  by  the  invasions 
and  wars  of  various  sorts.  However,  we  have  record  of  a 
foundling  asylum  opened  by  a  priest  named  Dathus,  in 
Milan,  in  795,  in  which  infants  were  to  be  kept  until  the 
age  of  seven,  when  they  were  to  be  apprenticed. 

The  results  of  the  indiscriminate  charities  of  this 
period  are  thus  described  by  the  Catholic  historian, 
Lallemand :  "  We  cannot  deceive  ourselves.  These  liber- 
alities necessitated  by  the  misfortunes  of  the  times  favored 
idleness.  With  meritorious  persons  there  mingled  slaves, 
fugitive  clergy,  debauched  men  and  enemies  of  work.  In 
order  to  make,  so  far  as  possible,  a  sort  of  selection  it  was 
advised  to  require  from  those  who  were  unknown  a  letter 
of  recommendation.  The  Council  of  Tours  in  567 
attempted  to  remedy  these  numerous  abuses  by  deciding 
that  each  commune  should  be  required  to  relieve  its  own 
inhabitants  in  order  to  prevent  begging  and  vagabondage." 
Lallemand  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  the  efforts  to  correct  this 
evil  were  unsuccessful,  and  speaking  of  one  of  the  capitu- 
laries of  Charlemagne,  says :  "  It  is  needless  to  add  that 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  239 

this  capitulary  obtained  no  more  results  than  its  prede- 
cessors  The  ninth  century  ended  in  the  midst 

of  internal  wars  and  Norman  invasions.  Christian  charity 
overrun  could  do  no  more  than  apply  palliatives  to  such  a 
state  of  things." 

THE   MIDDLE  AGES 

The  break-up  of  Charlemagne's  empire  in  843  resulted 
in  a  decentralization  of  political  power,  which  lasted  until 
the  modern  period.  Feudalism  characterized  the  life  of  the 
centuries  that  followed,  with  the  relations  of  lord  and 
vassal,  chivalry,  petty  warfare  and  the  "  hokus-pokus  "  of 
medieval  "  justice." 

MEDIEVAL  PHILOSOPHY 

Scholasticism  was  the  dominant  philosophy  of  the 
middle  ages.  This  meant  that  the  great  minds  of  the 
time  were  devoted  to  theology  instead  of  scientific 
questions,  and  to  problems  of  gaining  heaven  rather  than 
making  the  world  here  a  better  place  in  which  to  live.  The 
dominant  and  accepted  philosophy  was  one  of  the  fixity  of 
things.  It  presented  in  the  intellectual  world  just  such  a 
hierarchy  as  existed  in  the  Church,  in  the  feudal  order  and 
even  in  the  towns  which  presently  grew  up.  It  started 
out  with  the  assumption  that  the  Church  possessed  all 
truth  by  an  infallible  revelation. 

The  futility  of  scholastic  thought  is  illustrated  by 
Anselm's  argument  for  the  existence  of  God.  This  argu- 
ment is  summarized  by  Rogers  as  follows :  "  We  define 
God  as  a  being  than  which  nothing  greater  can  be  thought. 
Now  there  is  in  the  mind  the  idea  of  such  a  being.  But 
also,  such  a  being  means  existence  outside  the  mind,  for  if 
it  did  not,  it  would  fail  to  be  a  being  than  which  nothing 
greater  can  be  thought.  A  being  with  the  added  attribute 


240  SOCIAL  WORK 

of  existence  is  greater  than  one  merely  in  idea.  Therefore, 
God  exists  not  merely  in  mind,  but  also  as  a  real  existence 
outside  the  mind." 

Contact  with  the  Saracens  and  with  the  Jews  brought 
medieval  Europe  again  into  touch  with  the  Greek  philos- 
ophers, whom  for  several  centuries  they  had  known  only 
through  commentators,  if  at  all.  At  first,  the  Church  was 
afraid  and  proceeded  to  frown  upon  Aristotle.  But  as  it 
perceived  the  popularity  of  interpreting  and  using  him  for 
its  own  purposes,  he  was  taken  over  in  such  a  way  as 
almost  to  make  him  a  saint.  The  following  illustration 
shows  the  way  in  which  the  dictatorship  of  Aristotle  set 
bounds  to  the  intellect  quite  as  effectually  as  the  Church 
had  previously  done  through  its  own  dogmas.  The  story 
goes  that  a  certain  man  thought  he  had  discovered  spots 
in  the  sun.  In  reply  to  his  claim,  one  of  the  schoolmen 
replied,  "  My  son,  I  have  read  Aristotle  many  times,  and 
I  assure  you  that  there  is  nothing  of  the  kind  mentioned  by 
him.  Be  certain,  therefore,  that  the  spots  which  you  have 
seen  are  in  your  eyes  and  not  in  the  sun." 

In  the  face  of  such  a  philosophy  as  this,  it  should  not 
surprise  us  to  find  that  medieval  philanthropy  never 
involved  the  idea  of  stopping  the  sources  of  poverty  by 
.removing  injustice  from  the  social  order.  Moreover, 
we  find  here  simply  one  more  expression  of  the  idea  of 
fixity  which  we  have  already  seen  to  have  had  influence 
in  the  statutes  of  laborers  and  in  the  early  English 
Poor  Law. 

THE   CRUSADES 

But  quite  without  foreseeing  its  disorganizing  and 
disruptive  consequences,  the  Church  fostered  a  movement 
which  was  destined  to  break  up  the  rigid  medieval  system. 
This  movement  was  the  effort  of  the  Church  to  recover 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  241 

control  of  the  Holy  Land.  Now  on  the  surface  there  was 
nothing  about  the  Crusades  that  was  inconsistent  with  the 
medieval  scheme  of  things.  But  the  setting  in  motion 
of  large  numbers  of  people  meant  the  break-up  of  many  of 
the  little  groups  in  which  the  majority  lived.  It  called 
forth  also  a  volume  of  commerce  which  Europe  had  never 
before  witnessed,  and  thereby  stimulated  the  growth  of 
the  towns  with  their  industry.  It  was  the  Crusades, 
therefore,  with  their  unexpected  consequences  which  we 
shall  study  in  a  later  chapter,  that  provided  the  occasion 
for  a  great  deal  of  medieval  philanthropy. 

The  principal  agencies  of  relief  during  the  later  middle 
ages  were  the  monasteries,  the  hospital  orders,  the  hos- 
pitals which  grew  out  of  the  earlier  xenodochia,  the 
religious  fraternities,  the  alms  of  individuals  and  the 
monts-de-piete  or  religious  loan  banks. 

THE  MONASTERIES 

In  each  abbey  of  the  Benedictines  there  was  a  brother 
called  the  porter,  who  regularly  distributed  money, 
clothing  and  provisions.  On  the  eve  of  great  festivals, 
especially  large  distributions  were  made.  At  Cluny,  a 
special  dignitary,  called  the  eleemosinarius,  had  as  his  duty 
the  care  of  the  poor.  He  went  to  visit  the  sick  in  their 
homes,  once  a  week  going  into  the  house  himself  if  it 
were  a  man  and  sending  aid  by  his  domestic  if  it  were  a 
woman.  Toward  the  end  of  the  middle  ages,  the  monas- 
teries suffered  many  abuses.  We  are  told  that  "  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  too  often  in  the  fourteenth,  the 
monks  yielded  to  idleness  and  luxury  and  love  for  the 
poor  grew  cold.  The  careful  investigation  and  relief  of  dis- 
tress among  the  laboring  population  in  the  neighborhood 
was  given  up,  and  nothing  remained  but  indiscriminate 
almsgiving  at  the  gate."  Hence,  there  was  a  movement 
16 


242 


SOCIAL  WORK 


to  regulate  the  monasteries,  both  on  the  part  of  the  Church 
and  of  the  civil  authority.  We  have  already  seen  how 
they  were  completely  abolished  in  England. 

HOSPITAL  ORDERS 

Similar  to  the  philanthropic  work  of  the  monasteries 
was  that  of  the  military  orders  founded  in  connection  with 
the  Crusades.  One  of  the  earliest  was  the  order  of  St. 
John,  whose  rule  was  recognized  by  Paschalis  II  in  1113. 
Raymond  de  Puy  divided  the  body  into  three  sections: 
(i)  knights  who  were  sworn  to  eternal  warfare  against 
the  infidels,  (2)  clergy  who  were  to  attend  to  the  necessary 
religious  ceremonies  and  distribute  alms  to  the  poor, 
(3)  "  serventi "  who  were  to  care  for  the  poor  and  the 
sick.  In  general,  they  seem  to  have  set  aside  a  part  of  each 
commandery  as  a  hospital,  or  else  to  have  established  a 
hospital  in  connection  with  it.  In  addition,  they  main- 
tained a  number  of  separate  institutions.  There  was  one 
in  Toulouse,  there  were  three  in  Florence  and  one  in  Posen. 

Another  of  the  hospital  orders  which  arose  out  of  the 
Crusades  was  the  Teutonic  Order.  This  was  authorized 
by  Pope  Celestin  II,  in  1142,  and  developed  in  Germany 
especially  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Besides  the  three  ordinary  vows  of  poverty,  obedience  and 
chastity,  each  member  was  required  to  consecrate  himself 
particularly  to  the  care  of  the  poor  and  the  sick.  Every 
commandery  was  expected  to  have  a  hospital  as  an  annex. 
The  first  one  established  in  northern  Europe  was  the  one 
founded  at  Halle  in  1200.  This  Order  seems  to  have  been 
well  organized  and  administered,  but  as  time  went  on  its 
primitive  zeal  weakened,  and  in  the  course  of  the  fifteenth 
century  most  of  the  commanderies  disappeared. 

Other  orders  were  the  Cruciferi,  which  had  fifty-seven 
establishments  in  the  thirteenth  century,  chiefly  in  Italy 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  243 

and  Germany;  the  Knights  of  St.  James  of  the  Swords 
placed  under  the  rule  of  St.  Augustine  in  1175,  which 
established  shelters  in  Spain  for  pilgrims;  the  Order  of 
St.  Elizabeth,  whose  work  was  principally  in  Germany. 
In  addition,  there  were  the  regular  Canons  of  Penitence 
established  in  Italy  and  afterwards  carried  to  Prague  and 
Cracow.  Their  function  was  to  provide  for  the  needs 
of  the  sick  and  the  burial  of  the  dead. 

MONTS-DE-PIETE 

Perhaps  the  most  discriminating  and  the  most 
constructive  of  medieval  philanthropy  was  the  work  of  the 
Monts-de-Piete,  or  religious  loan  banks.  In  spite  of 
the  teaching  of  the  Church  condemning  the  taking  of  usury, 
very  high  rates  of  interest  were  often  charged.  Perhaps  the 
general  prohibition,  and  the  fear  of  the  lender  that 
his  claim  would  not  be  supported  was  one  cause  of  the  high 
rates.  In  any  event  we  find  cases  in  which  the  interest 
would  amount  in  six  months  to  the  principal  and  then  be 
compounded.  Lallemand  cites  various  rates  from  twenty 
per  cent,  to  fifty  per  cent,  as  being  common  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  Some  attempts  had  been  made  to  remedy  this 
evil ;  one  establishment  for  making  pledge  loans  at  reason- 
able rates  having  been  founded  in  Freisingen  in  1198. 
But  these  earlier  attempts  were  temporary  and  disappeared. 

The  fifteenth  century  saw  the  founding  of  a  great 
many  monts-de-piete  in  Italy.  Sometimes  they  were 
backed  by  citizens,  very  often  they  were  the  result  of  the 
preaching  of  some  monk  or  priest.  The  Franciscans,  the 
real  founders  of  the  Monts-de-Piete,  followed  two  aims: 
to  relieve  the  small  people  borne  down  by  usury,  and  to 
prevent  those  who  possess  a  bit  of  property  from  ruin  by 
borrowing  foolishly  for  frivolous  or  immoral  purposes. 


244  SOCIAL  WORK 

Bernardin  de  Feltre  proposed  three  principles  which 
he  considered  the  basis  of  these  institutions ;  deposit  of  a 
pledge  worth  more  than  the  sum  loaned,  sale  of  the 
unclaimed  pledge  after  a  definite  period  and  return  of 
the  balance  to  the  depositor,  and  a  low  rate  of  interest 
to  cover  the  cost  of  administration.  These  fundamental 
propositions  were  generally  adopted,  and  experience  con- 
firmed their  wisdom. 

The  statutes  of  the  Monts-de-Piete  of  Parma  (1488) 
and  those  of  La  Mirandola  ( 1495  ) ,  which  with  a  few  vari- 
ations were  merely  a  reproduction  of  the  rules  of  Parma, 
give  us  an  exact  idea  of  the  administration  of  these 
establishments  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  governing  board  was  made  up  of  four  ecclesi- 
astics, three  doctors,  three  merchants,  and  three  other 
laymen.  The  Depositario,  chief  receiver  of  pledges,  must 
be  a  capable  and  good  man,  fearing  God.  He  kept  track 
of  everything  deposited  and  wrote  everything  carefully 
on  the  registers.  The  Capserio  or  Fattore,  the  cashier, 
handled  the  money.  Like  the  receiver  he  was  chosen  for 
one,  two  or  more  years;  he  might  choose  one  or  two 
employes  to  help  him  in  his  work ;  and  he  was  responsible 
for  them.  As  to  the  place  serving  as  a  pawnshop  it  must 
be  spacious  and  guarantee  safe-keeping.  Two  controllers, 
Rasonati-Raxonati,  named  each  year,  related  neither  by 
blood  nor  marriage  to  the  receiver  or  cashier,  audited  the 
accounts  and  registers  kept  by  these  functionaries  one 
month  after  they  turned  over  their  office.  They  received 
a  small  compensation  for  this  work.  The  interest  charged 
at  the  beginning  of  this  work  was  naturally  modest;  at 
Mirandola  it  was  only  five  per  cent.  Nothing  was  charged 
small  borrowers.  Money  could  be  loaned  only  to  citizens 
who  had  real  need,  and  not  to  persons  disposed  to  employ 
these  sums  for  vain  or  unworthy  purposes. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  245 

THE  REFORMATION 

We  have  described  the  development  of  ecclesiastical 
charities  up  to  the  great  division  in  the  Church  which  took 
place  in  the  sixteenth  century.  After  the  Reformation, 
the  importance  of  the  Church  in  the  field  of  social  work 
gradually  diminished  in  the  Protestant  countries,  but 
remained  as  great  as  ever  in  those  lands  which  continued 
Catholic.  In  the  north  of  Europe  many  functions  pre- 
viously administered  by  the  Church  were  taken  over  by 
the  civil  authorities,  and  it  was  quite  natural  that  poor 
relief  should  follow  this  general  course.  But  perhaps  the 
most  important  reason  for  the  difference  in  the  subsequent 
development  had  to  do  with  the  doctrine  of  religious 
merit  of  almsgiving.  The  "  indulgences  "  which  were  one 
of  the  chief  bones  of  contention  in  the  Reformation  were 
quite  intimately  associated  with  the  idea  of  securing 
salvation  through  alms.  It  was  natural  that  the 
Protestants  should  experience  revulsion  against  this  sort 
of  thing,  for  the  time  being  at  least ;  and  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  never  recovered  its  former  influence  over  the  minds 
and  habits  of  the  peoples  of  northern  Europe. 

The  retention  of  this  doctrine  by  the  Catholic  Church 
was  entirely  in  line  with  the  reactionary  position  which 
it  assumed  after  the  Reformation.  It  abandoned  the 
intellectual  achievements  of  the  Renaissance,  turned  its 
back  on  humanism  and  returned  to  the  sterile  scholasticism 
of  the  middle  ages.  It  set  itself  against  modern  science, 
denied  Copernicanism,  made  Galileo  retract  his  belief 
tliat  the  earth  goes  round  the  sun,  and  burned  Giordano 
Bruno  at  the  stake  for  similar  teachings.  It  put  its  iron 
heel  on  freedom  of  speech,  and  through  the  Inquisition 
opposed  progress  of  every  sort  and  retarded  the  develop- 
ment of  Catholic  countries. 


246  SOCIAL  WORK 

At  the  same  time  the  Church  instituted  many  internal 
reforms,  and  corrected  many  of  the  evils  against  which 
Luther  and  the  other  Protestants  inveighed  so  strongly. 
Beginning  with  Paul  III,  a  series  of  reforms  quite 
changed  the  general  character  of  the  clergy.  But  on  the 
whole  the  position  of  the  Church  with  respect  to  charities 
was  that  which  we  have  just  noted.  The  Council  of 
Trent  (1545-65),  which  started  as  an  effort  to  reunite 
the  Christian  world,  ended,  because  of  the  deliberate 
absence  of  the  Protestants,  in  a  restatement  of  the  old 
dogmas  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  a  return  to  the  theol- 
ogy and  philosophy  of  Thomas  Aquinas.  From  this  time 
on  charity  was  urged  as  a  means  of  defending  the 
Church  and  strengthening  its  position.  It  was  insisted 
that  charity  is  a  function  of  the  Church  exclusively. 
Hence  it  was  that  the  modern  development  of  relief  by 
civic  agencies  came  first  in  northern  Europe,  and  has  not 
even  yet  really  established  itself  in  the  Catholic  countries. 

As  exceptions  to  the  statement  just  made,  we  may 
cite  a  few  instances  of  public  relief  in  countries  which 
remained  faithful  to  Rome.  Lille,  in  1506,  tried  to  bring 
the  charitable  funds  of  the  city  together  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  municipality.  Antwerp,  in  1521,  seems  to 
have  had  a  well-organized  bureau.  The  reforms  of  Ypres 
will  be  discussed  more  fully  in  a  later  chapter.  Madrid,  in 
1544,  undertook  to  work  out  an  elaborate  system  of 
public  relief.  Toulouse,  in  1538,  levied  a  tax  for  the  relief 
of  the  poor.  Paris,  in  1582,  had  a  commission  to  collect 
alms  and  visit  the  poor.  Lyons  had,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  a  municipal  bureau  of  charity  under  the  direction 
of  laymen.  But  these  were  exceptions,  and  most  of  these 
developments  were  soon  suppressed.  The  vast  majority  of 
relief  work  in  France,  Spain,  Italy  and  Austria  continued 


ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITIES  247 

to  be  done  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  Church,  and 
by  agencies  founded  and  approved  by  the  Church. 

After  the  bitterness  of  the  Reformation  had  somewhat 
passed  away,  the  Catholic  charities  began  not  only  to  adopt 
some  of  the  principles  worked  out  by  the  Protestant, 
Jewish  and  secular  agencies,  but  also  made  their  own 
contributions  to  the  modern  techniques  of  social  work. 
Particularly  through  the  great  society  of  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul,  founded  in  1833,  with  chapters  in  almost  every 
country,  have  the  Catholics  put  into  effect  most  of  the 
principles  of  the  charity  organization  movement.  They 
have  adopted  the  "  case  method  "  of  work  with  individuals 
and  families.  They  have  come  to  provide  excellent 
institutional  care  for  children  and  old  people,  and  they 
have  trained  specialists  in  the  various  fields  of  social 
work.  One  of  the  most  recent  efforts  in  America  to  train 
professional  workers  for  the  Catholic  agencies  is  the 
National  Service  School  for  Women  at  Washington,  D.  C. 

It  is  necessary  to  note  these  more  recent  developments 
in  order  that  it  may  be  clear  that  ecclesiastical  charities  in 
the  twentieth  century  are  by  no  means  what  they  were 
in  the  middle  ages;  that  with  relatively  few  exceptions 
they  follow  the  same  principles  and  methods  as  do  other 
organizations.  But  the  time  when  the  Church  was  the 
dominant  factor  in  social  work  has  definitely  passed.  That 
time  was  the  middle  ages. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

General 

Lallemand,   Leon:  Histoire  de  la  Charitc.    Paris:   Picard,   1902-12. 

4  vols.  in  5. 
Ratzinger,  Georg:  Geschichte  der  kirchlichen  Armenfleyc.  Freiburg 

L  Br.,  1884. 
Uhlhorn,  G.:  Die  christliche  Ltebesthiitigkfit.  3  Bde.  Stuttgart, 

1884-1890. 


248  SOCIAL  WORK 

Monks  and  Friars 

Montalembert,  Charles :  Monks  of  the  West;  from  St.  Benedict  to  St. 
Bernard.  Edinburgh:  Blackwood,  1861-79.  7  vols. 

Wishart,  A.  W. :  Short  History  of  Monks  and  Monasteries.  Tren- 
ton, N.  J.,  1900. 

Palmer,  Fr.  C.  F. :  Life  of  P.  T.  Howard,  Grand  Almoner  of  Cathe- 
rine of  Bragama.  (Sketch  of  the  rise,  mission  and  influence  of 
the  Dominican  Order.)  London,  1867. 

Pouille  General  des  Abbayes  de  France  et  Benefices  qui  en  dependent. 
Paris:  Alliot,  1626. 

Military  and  Hospital  Orders. 

Bristed,  Chas.  A. :  Military  Orders  of  the  Middle  Ages.    Cambridge, 

1843- 
Helyot:  Histoire  des  Ordres  Monastigues,  Religeuses  et  Militaires. 

Paris,  1715-1721.    8  vols. 
Bedford,  W.  K.,  and  Holbeche,  Richard :  The  Order  of  the  Hospital 

of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem.     London :  Robinson,   1902. 
Kingsley,  Rose  G. :  The  Order  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem.    London : 

Skeffington,   1918. 
Taafe,  Sir  John :  History  of  the  Holy,  Military,  Sovereign  Order  of 

St.  John  of  Jerusalem.     (Appendix  of  priginal  material.)     Lon- 
don: Hope,  1852. 
Oehler,  Max :  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Ritterordens.    Elbing :  Wer- 

nich,  1908-12. 
Rink,  Joseph  Paul:  Die  christliche  Liebesth'dtigkeit  i»  Ordensl'dndcr 

Preussen  bis  1525.    Breslau,  1911. 
Perlbach,  Max :  Die  Statuten  des  deutschen  Ordens  nach  den  altesten 

Handschriften.    Halle,  1890. 
Wernher,  Adolf:  Die  Armen-  und  Krankenpfiege  der  geistlichen 

Ritterorden  in  friiherer  Zeit.    Berlin,  1874. 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL 

THE  philanthropy  of  the  medieval  Church  was  of  two 
general  types;  indiscriminate  almsgiving  and  congregate 
institutions  for  all  sorts  of  people.  The  first,  we  have 
already  discussed.  It  is  to  the  second  that  we  shall  now 
devote  our  attention. 

RISE  OF  THE  HOSPITALS 

As  was  indicated  in  the  preceding  chapter,  the  hos- 
pital as  a  type  of  institution,  had  its  beginning  in 
the  xenodochium,  which  was  at  the  outset  a  place  for  the 
entertainment  of  travellers  but  presently  came  to  serve  quite 
a  variety  of  purposes ;  furnishing  shelter  for  the  aged  and 
infirm,  the  sick  and  injured,  widows,  young  children  and 
any  others  who  might  be  in  need  of  assistance. 

These  xenodochia  were  usually  connected  with  a 
parish  church.  As  time  went  on  and  their  functions 
multiplied,  such  institutions  were  established  under 
a  variety  of  auspices.  Sometimes  they  were  attached  to  a 
monastery;  sometimes  to  a  commandery  of  one  of  the 
military  orders ;  some  were  founded  by  bishops  and  other 
high  Church  officials ;  many  others  by  kings  and  nobles. 
Not  a  few  owed  their  origin  to  some  religious  fra- 
ternity, and  later  to  a  merchant  or  craft  gild.  Finally,  the 
new  towns  took  over  the  management  of  existing  institu- 
tions, or  founded  new  ones  for  the  care  of  their  citizens. 

In  the  course  of  this  medieval  development  we  find 
relatively  little  differentiation  of  function,  nearly  all  of  the 
institutions  being  congregate  in  character  and  receiving 

«49 


250  SOCIAL  WORK 

the  greatest  possible  variety  of  needy  folk.  But  there  was 
considerable  variation  in  the  names  applied.  Some  were 
known  as  hospital  or  spital;  a  great  many  bore  the  name 
Maison-Dieu  or  Domus-Deus.  In  England  we  find  the 
name  almshouse,  and  in  France  Aumonerie.  The  character 
of  these  institutions  is  not  at  all  that  which  we  have  come 
to  associate  with  the  word  hospital.  Miss  Clay  has  made 
this  very  clear.  "  It  was  an  ecclesiastical,  not  a  medical 
institution.  It  was  for  care  rather  than  for  cure :  for  the 
relief  of  the  body  when  possible,  but  preeminently 
for  the  refreshment  of  the  soul.  By  manifold  religious 
observances,  the!  staff  sought  to  elevate  and  discipline 
character.  They  endeavored,  as  the  body  decayed,  to 
strengthen  the  soul  and  prepare  it  for  the  future  life. 
Faith  and  love  were  more  predominant  features  in  hospital 
life  than  were  skill  and  science." 

The  surprising  thing  to  the  modern  student  is  the  very 
large  number  of  these  institutions  which  were  scattered 
all  over  medieval  Europe.  Ashley  estimates  that  there 
were  over  450  in  England  alone  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation.  There  were  sixteen  in  the  one  city  of  Yorkt 

ORGANIZATION   AND   ADMINISTRATION 

RULES  AND  REGULATIONS 

Admission  to  one  of  these  institutions  was  sometimes 
at  the  discretion  of  the  warden,  but  very  frequently  at 
the  will  of  the  patron.  The  founder,  or  other  benefactor 
of  a  hospital,  frequently  reserved  for  himself  the  right  to 
say  by  whom  one  or  more  of  the  beds  should  be  occupied. 
In  some  of  the  hospitals  it  appears  that  the  candidate 
had  also  to  be  approved  by  his  future  companions. 

The  appointment  of  the  staff  members  was  usually  in 
the  hands  of  the  patron  who,  as  we  have  already  seen, 


THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL  251 

might  be  a  noble,  a  bishop,  a  wealthy  burgess,  or  the 
representative  of  some  organization  like  the  gilds.  In  a 
few  privileged  houses,  the  staff  brothers  were  permitted 
to  select  a  superior  from  their  own  midst  and  nominate 
him  to  the  patron. 

The  rules  concerning  payment  and  property  were 
often  very  much  like  those  in  modern  homes  for  the 
aged.  In  some  cases  the  candidate  for  admission  was 
required  to  make  a  payment ;  for  example,  at  Dover  loos. 
Other  hospitals  had  ordinances  forbidding  this  practise, 
but  evidently  this  prohibition  was  easily  got  around,  for 
at  St.  Nicholas  Hospital  in  York  it  was  provided  that 
"  without  the  fear  of  simony,  the  property  of  an  incoming 
brother  might  be  received  if  given  spontaneously  and 
absolutely."  Both  staff  and  inmates  were  frequently 
under  the  threefold  vow  of  chastity,  obedience  and 
poverty.  In  early  days  a  total  renunciation  of  personal 
goods  was  required  of  the  inmates  of  many  leper  hospitals. 
But  in  others  this  rule  was  never  made  or  else  was  later 
relaxed.  The  goods  of  a  deceased  member  were  ordinarily 
distributed  among  the  surviving  inmates. 

The  rules  of  conduct  generally  required  that  the 
brothers  and  sisters  of  the  hospital  staff  be  rigidly 
separated,  except  at  worship  or  at  work.  But  in  the  case 
of  inmates  who  were  not  "professed,"  the  men  and  women 
seem  to  have  lived  a  common  life.  From  the  modern 
point  of  view  there  was  a  curious  mixture  of  strictness 
and  laxity,  particularly  with  reference  to  the  lepers.  This 
was  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  rules  were  a  matter 
of  discipline  rather  than  of  health. 

For  violation  of  rules,  various  punishments  were 
inflicted  by  the  warden;  among  them,  flogging,  fasting, 
fines,  the  stocks,  suspension  and  expulsion. 


252  SOCIAL  WORK 

THE  STAFF 

The  internal  authority  was  usually  vested  in  the 
warden,  whose  power  was  frequently  very  great.  But  he 
was  subject  to  supervision  from  without  on  the  part  of 
the  patron  or  his  agents.  If  an  institution  were  main- 
tained by  a  town  or  by  a  gild,  its  representatives  would  act 
as  visitors. 

The  staff  of  a  medieval  hospital  was  in  charge  of  a 
warden,  who  was  also  known  as  master,  prior,  custos, 
keeper  or  rector.  He  was  usually  a  priest,  but  occasion- 
ally a  layman,  and  in  a  few  instances  was  described  as  a 
physician.  Under  the  warden  were  a  number  of  brothers 
who  might  be  priests,  monks  or  lay-brethren.  One  of 
them,  known  as  the  proctor,  was  the  financial  agent.  His 
duties  were  "  to  preach  and  collect  alms."  Women  were 
frequently  employed  for  bedside  care  of  the  sick  and 
various  domestic  duties.  Some  of  the  staff  were  merely 
pensioners  or  beneficiaries  who  turned  their  property  over 
to  the  hospital  and  in  return  received  their  living.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  regular  staff,  there  were  sometimes  paid 
servants  who  acted  as  cooks,  bakers,  brewers,  smiths, 
carters,  laundresses,  etc.  Finally,  there  were  the  inmates, 
the  sick,  the  lame,  the  blind,  the  poor  and  passing  pilgrims. 
These,  too,  were  a  part  of  the  working  force,  for  even  if 
they  could  do  nothing  else,  they  were  employed  at  praying 
for  their  benefactors. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 

As  we  observed  before,  the  daily  life  in  the  hospital 
was  essentially  religious.  Both  staff  and  inmates  were 
required  to  attend  mass  and  keep  the  canonical  hours.  All 
who  were  able  to  be  up  had  to  attend  chapel,  and  the  bed- 
ridden patients  worshipped  at  the  same  time.  In  many 
cases  a  knowledge  of  the  Psalter  of  the  Blessed  Virgin, 


THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL  253 

which  was  the  standard  form  of  worship  for  the  illiterate, 
was  required  as  a  condition  of  admission  to  the  hospital. 
It  is  said  of  some  of  the  lazar-houses  that  admission  to 
them  was  equivalent  to  taking  up  the  life  of  a  "  religious." 
The  lepers  at  Dover  were  required  to  say  two  hundred 
Paternosters  and  Ave  Marias  by  day  and  as  many  by 
night.  One  member  of  the  staff  roused  them  from  their 
sleep  by  ringing  the  dormitory  bell  and  the  prayers  were 
repeated  by  the  inmates  sitting  erect  in  bed.  Each  inmate 
of  St.  Bartholomew's  at  Sandwich  was  required  to  take 
a  solemn  vow  binding  himself  to 

"  be  obedient  w1  hooly  deuocyon  prayyng  for  the 

founder  of  this  place and  in  especiall  I  shall 

be  at  the  bedys  (bedes)  in  the  churche,  and  at  matynys, 
and  atte  messe,  and  euensong  and  complyne,  as  the 
custome  of  maner  is  and  usage — so  help  me  God,  and  all 
holy  dome,  and  all  seints  of  heuen." 

The  almsmen  of  Ewelme  said  the  following  prayer 
each  night  at  the  founders'  tombs : 

"  God  have  mercy  on  the  sowle  of  the  noble  prince 
Kyng  Harry  the  Sext  and  of  the  sowles  of  my  Lord 
William  sum  tyme  Duke  of  Suffolke,  and  my  lady  Alice 
Duchesse  of  Suffolke  his  wyfe,  oure  fyrst  fownders,  and 
of  theyr  fadyr  and  modyr  sowles  &  all  cristen  sowles." 

William  Wynard,  recorder  of  the  town  of  Exeter, 
built  a  hospital  and  drew  up  the  following  prayer  for  the 
use  of  inmates: 

"  O  Lord  Jesu  Christ,  Son  of  the  Living  God,  have 
mercy  upon  Thy  servant  William  founder  of  this  place, 
as  Thou  wilt  and  as  Thou  knowest  best ;  bestow  upon  him 
strong  hope,  right  faith  and  unshadowed  love,  and  grant 
to  him  a  good  end,  which  is  a  gift  above  all  others.  Amen." 

A  similar  prayer  was  used  by  the  inmates  of  an  alms- 
house  at  Lichfield : 


254  SOCIAL  WORK 

"  O  God,  who  by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Comforter,  pourest  the  gifts  of  charity  into  the  hearts  of 
the  faithful,  grant  to  thy  servant  William  the  bishop,  our 
founder,  and  grant  to  Thy  servants  and  to  Thy  handmaids, 
for  whom  we  implore  Thy  clemency,  health  of  mind  and 
body;  that  they  may  love  Thee  with  all  their  strength, 
and  with  all  joyfulness  perforni  such  things  as  please 
thee ;  through  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen.'" 

In  the  large  hospitals  founded  by  the  Order  of  St. 
John  of  Jerusalem,  special  litanies  were  recited  at  nightfall. 
The  inmates  prayed  for  the  advancement  of  Christianity, 
the  welfare  of  the  Pope,  the  kings  and  princes,  pilgrims, 
prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  Saracens  and  for  those 
whose  alms  supported  the  hospital. 

PHYSICAL   CARE 

The  fact  that  emphasis  was  put  chiefly  on  the  care  of  the 
soul  did  not  mean  necessarily  that  the  body  was  neglected. 
However,  the  provision  for  physical  comfort  was  very 
different  from,  that  to  be  found  in  modern  institutions. 
As  to  food,  there  were  three  classes  of  menus;  one  for 
the  regular  inmates  from  day  to  day,  another  for  religious 
festivals,  and  another  for  casual  sojourners.  Just  what 
the  food  was  we  are  not  told.  Lighting  was,  of  course, 
by  candles,  and  heating  was  from  wood  collected  in  the 
vicinity  by  the  permission  of  the  manorial  lord. 

In  the  early  middle  ages  the  sick  and  the  poor  slept  on 
pallets  of  straw,  but  wooden  bedsteads  seem  to  have  been 
introduced  about  the  twelfth  century.  For  a  long  time 
real  beds  were  so  scarce  that  it  was  regarded  as  a  matter 
of  some  importance  for  a  dying  patron  or  pensioner  to 
leave  his  bed  to  the  hospital.  We  are  told  also  that  there 
was  great  difficulty  in  keeping  the  beds  clean,  and  it  is 
regarded  as  quite  noteworthy  that  in  one  hospital  the 


THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL  255 

sum  of  465.  8d.  was  set  aside  annually  for  washing  the 
bedclothes.  We  learn  that  bathing,  washing  of  the  head, 
shaving,  and  changes  of  clothing  were  provided  for  in  the 
better  hospitals.  This  suggests  that  none  too  much 
attention  was  given  to  them  in  a  great  many  instances.  As 
to  clothing,  there  was  usually  a  special  habit  for  the  staff, 
another  for  the  almsmen  and  a  third  for  lepers.  An  inter- 
esting sidelight  on  the  attitude  toward  the  lepers  appears 
in  the  statutes  of  S.  Julian's.  They  ought  "  as  well  in  their 
conduct  as  in  their  garb  to  bear  themselves  as  men  despised, 
and  as  more  humble  than  the  rest  of  their  fellowmen," 

FINANCIAL  SUPPORT 

The  funds  for  maintaining  these  hospitals  came  from 
endowments,  bequests,  fairs,  admission  fees,  contributions 
both  voluntary  and  involuntary,  and  the  alms  of  pilgrims. 

In  England  the  sheriff  of  the  county  was  sometimes 
responsible  for  turning  over  to  a  hospital  the  profits  from 
crown  lands ;  sometimes  there  were  <rents  from  real  estate, 
and  sometimes  grants  were  made  on  account  of  a  vacant 
bishopric.  In  addition  there  were  endowments  in  kind, 
the  kings,  for  instance,  making  grants  from  royal  forests. 
Men  of  humble  circumstances,  as  well  as  kings  and  nobles, 
sometimes  left  money  to  the  hospitals.  But  in  general  they 
seem  to  have  depended  upon  the  nobility  and  the  clergy. 

The  funds  of  privileged  charities  were  often  assisted 
by  fairs.  These  were  gala  occasions,  usually  held  at  the 
festival  of  the  patron  saint  of  the  hospital.  Ordinarily, 
they  lasted  two  or  three  days,  but  sometimes  they  were  so 
profitable  that  they  were  continued  for  as  much  as  a  fort- 
night. Another  important  source  of  revenue  was  the 
admission  fee  to  which  we  have  already  referred. 

Theoretically,  the  contributions  made  to  hospitals 
were  voluntary.  An  interesting  example,  however,  of 


256  SOCIAL  WORK 

involuntary  contributions  is  involved  in  the  privilege 
which  King-  John  of  England  conferred  upon  the  lepers 
of  Shrewsbury.  He  gave  them  authority  to  dip  their 
hands  into  sacks  in  the  market-place  and  take  out 
hand  fills  of  corn  and  flour.  Most  of  the  contributions 
were  gifts  of  food,  clothing,  etc.,  rather  than  money. 
Sometimes  they  were  brought  in  by  the  donors,  but 
usually  collectors  went  after  them.  Sometimes  the  inmates 
themselves  went  about  begging.  If  the  proctor  or  other 
collector  went  beyond  his  own  neighborhood,  he  had  to 
secure  a  "  protection,"  or  warrant,  from  a  king  or  bishop. 
Thud,  Henry  III  endorsed  the  cause  of  St.  Giles  at 
Shrewsbury  in  these  words :  "  That  when  the  brethren 
come  to  you  to  beg  alms,  you  will  favorably  admit  them 
and  mercifully  impart  to  them  your  alms  of  the  goods 
conferred  by  God  upon  you."  In  addition,  there  were 
appeals  authorized  by  the  Church,  frequently  in  the  form 
of  indulgences.  Some  of  these  documents  we  have  already 
examined  in  our  discussion  of  the  religious  merit 
of  almsgiving. 

Finally,  the  alms  of  passing  pilgrims  constituted  fre- 
quently an  important  source  of  income.  Especially  if  a 
hospital  possessed  some  well-known  relic  would  gifts 
be  made  by  those  who  sought  healing  in  its  presence.  We 
are  told  that  the  Maison-Dieu  at  Dunwich  possessed  a 
cross  of  great  reputation  "  whither  many  resorted  to  adore 
it,  who  bestowed  much  alms."  When  this  relic  was  taken 
away,  the  inmates  were  greatly  impoverished. 

DECLINE  OF  THE  HOSPITALS 

It  can  be  readily  seen  from  this  brief  account  that  even 
at  the  best  the  medieval  hospital  was  ill  equipped  to  care 
for  those  who  sought  shelter  at  its  door.  But  unfor- 


THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL  257 

tunately,  it  was  not  always  at  its  best  and  abuses 
appeared  which  still  further  reduced  the  usefulness  of 
these  institutions. 

Frequently  the  patrons  demanded  in  return  for  their 
benevolence,  maintenance  free  of  charge  whenever  they 
desired  it.  Sometimes,  official  visitors  used  these  insti- 
tutions as  hostelries  for  themselves  and  their  friends. 
Frequently  the  privilege  of  board  and  lodging  was  given 
away  by  patrons  as  a  reward  for  service,  and  sometimes 
the  "  corrodies,"  as  they  were  called,  were  sold  outright 
by  greedy  officials.  So  serious  did  this  evil  become  in 
England  that  a  statute  of  1315  provided  that  "  there  shall 
be  no  more  grants  of  '  corrodies '  at  the  king's  requests." 

There  seems  to  have  been  much  litigation  about 
patronage.  Representatives  of  the  first  founder  and  those 
of  later  benefactors  quarrelled  over  their  respective  claims. 
Another  abuse  was  the  practise  of  keeping  important  posts 
unfilled.  The  same  Parliament  which  checked  Edward  III 
by  the  statute  just  mentioned  received  a  petition  stating 
that  hospitals  were  impoverished  and  destroyed  by  tem- 
porary guardians  during  the  vacancy  of  the  warden's 
position.  Frequently  the  patrons  neglected  personal 
supervision  of  the  hospitals  and  as  a  consequence  there 
were  many  abuses  by  the  wardens  and  the  staff.  It  was 
reported  of  one  warden,  about  the  year  1300,  that  "he 
defrauded  the  poor  of  their  alms,  locked  up  the  rooms 
where  strangers  and  sick  should  have  been  accommodated 
and  neglected  the  chapel."  Occasionally  investigations 
by  parliamentary  authority,  or  by  the  towns,  brought  out 
evidence  that  in  many  hospitals  the  members  of  the  staff 
were  living  about  as  they  pleased,  carrying  on  outside 
business  and  neglecting  their  duties  in  the  institution. 
Not  a  few  of  the  wardens  were  non-residents,  and  some 
of  them  had  charge  of  several  institutions.  A  youth  of 

17 


258  SOCIAL  WORK 

eighteen  was  appointed  warden  at  Portsmouth,  and  the 
master  of  Newton  Garth,  1427,  was  a  boy  of  sixteen. 

The  decline  of  the  hospitals  in  the  later  middle  ages  is 
well  described  in  Ashley's  summary  of  Ratzinger's  con- 
clusions. "  In  Germany,  he  tells  us,  the  usual  course 
of  events,  long  before  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  was 
as  follows :  the  hospital,  intended  originally  for  the  poor, 
came  to  be  looked  upon  by  its  clerical  administrators  as  a 
source  of  income,  and  at  last  was  regarded  very  much  in 
the  same  light  as  a  rich  benefice.  The  descent  was  the 
more  facile  because  from  the  twelfth  century  onward  most 
of  the  hospitals  were  exempted  from  the  control  of  their 
diocesan.  Those  hospitals  which  were  subject  to  the 
General  of  the  Order  of  the  Holy  Ghost  were  regularly 
bestowed  upon  Roman  prelates,  to  be  held  in  commendam. 
In  France  things  were  even  worse.  '  The  whole  history  of 
the  French  hospitals  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries  is  one  of  constant  abuse.  In  some  cases  this  was 
due  to  the  usurpation  of  the  heads  of  the  houses,  who 
dissipated  the  property  of  the  hospitals,  or  used  them  for 
their  own  advantage;  who  left  the  attendants  without 
means  of  support  and  refused  to  admit  the  sick  and 
hungry.'  It  was,  therefore,  '  fortunate  for  suffering 
humanity,  and  the  best  thing  that  could  happen  for  the 
institutions,'  that  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries 
such  of  them  as  still  survived  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
burgesses  of  the  several  towns,  and  usually  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  magistrates;  an  arrangement  which  was 
confirmed  by  an  ordinance  of  Louis  XI  in  1463." 

The  condition  of  things  in  England  is  thus  described 
by  a  statute  of  1414 :  "  Many  hospitals,  founded  as  well  by 
the  noble  kings  of  this  realm,  and  lords  and  ladies,  both 
spiritual  and  temporal,  as  well  as  by  others  of  divers  estates 
to  the  honour  of  God  and  of  His  glorious  Mother,  in  aid 


THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL  259 

and  merit  of  the  souls  of  the  said  founders,  to  the  which 
hospitals  the  same  founders  have  given  largely  of  their 
moveable  goods  for  the  buildings  of  the  same,  and  largely 
also  of  their  lands  and  tenements  wherewith  to  sustain  old 
men  and  women,  lazars,  men  and  women  out  of  their 
senses  and  memories,  poor  women  with  child,  and  other 
poor  persons,  and  there  to  relieve,  nourish  and  refresh  them 
(many  such  hospitals)  are  now  in  most  part  decayed,  and 
the  goods  and  profits  of  the  same  by  divers  persons,  both 
spiritual  and  temporal,  withdrawn  and  spent  in  other  uses, 
whereby  many  men  and  women  have  died  in  great  misery, 
for  default  of  aid,  living  and  succour." 

Further  evidence  appears  in  a  pamphlet  called  a 
"  Supplication  for  the  Beggars,"  written  about  1529.  It 
says,  "  What  remedy  to  relieve  us  your  poor,  sick,  lame 
and  sore  bedmen  ?  To  make  many  hospitals  for  the  relief 
of  the  poor  people?  Nay,  truly,  the  more  the  worse,  for 
ever  the  fat  of  the  whole  foundation  hangeth  on  the 
priests'  beards." 

Finally,  the  failure  of  the  hospitals  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  poor  appears  in  the  encouragement  which  they  gave 
to  the  practice  of  begging.  The  proctors  whom  they  sent 
about  to  beg  for  contributions  were  frequently  described 
as  "  sturdy  lubbers  "  who  lived  on  the  fat  of  the  land 
and  scandalized  decent  people  by  their  behavior.  They 
were  so  numerous  and  their  credentials  so  easily  forged 
that  there  grew  up  a  whole  swarm  of  fraudulent  imitators. 
Then  again,  the  larger  hospitals  particularly  offered  food 
and  lodging  to  all  who  applied,  providing  they  had  the 
superficial  appearance  of  need.  While  they  may  have 
made  some  attempt  to  distinguish  vagrants  from  other 
applicants,  it  was  not  possible  for  them  to  make  any  careful 
inquiry.  Hence  it  was  easy  for  vagabonds  to  go  "  from 
spital  to  spital,  prowling  and  poaching  for  lumps  of  bread 


26o  SOCIAL  WORK 

and  meat."  Thus,  while  the  hospitals  did  relatively  little 
good,  on  the  one  hand,  they  were  responsible  for  much 
harm  on  the  other. 

BEGINNINGS  OF  SPECIALIZED   INSTITUTIONS 

In  contrast  to  the  usual  congregate  institution,  such  as 
we  have  described,  there  was  slowly  developing  specialized 
care  for  different  groups  of  needy  people. 

During  the  middle  ages,  the  insane,  feeble-minded  and 
epileptic  were  often  regarded  as  possessed  of  devils  or 
bewitched.  Outside  of  accusations  of  sorcery,  they  were 
generally  regarded  as  harmless  and  allowed  to  wander 
about  subject  to  public  derision.  If  they  became  dangerous 
they  were  shut  up  in  common  prisons.  There  was  no 
thought  of  cure,  but  only  of  public  safety.  Even  in  the 
French  law  of  1791,  the  mentally  abnormal  were  dealt 
with  as  animals,  and  persons  who  had  assumed  their  care 
were  held  responsible  for  any  danger  they  might  do. 

But  a  change  began  slowly  to  be  made.  The  various 
types  of  mental  deviates  were  not  yet  differentiated,  but 
at  least  they  were  gradually  separated  from  persons  of 
normal  mentality.  Bedlam  Hospital  in  London  is  said 
to  have  received  such  patients  before  1400.  Originally, 
Bedlam  seems  to  have  been  a  priory,  but  Henry  VIII 
turned  it  into  a  hospital  especially  for  the  mentally  abnor- 
mal. An  asylum  was  founded  at  Valencia,  Spain,  in  1409, 
by  Fray  Gofre  Gilberto,  who  had  seen  similar  establish- 
ments among  the  Moors.  He  started  a  society  for  their 
care,  which  was  called  Association  de  los  Innocentos.  A 
religious  fraternity  authorized  in  1561  by  Pope  Pius  IV 
had  charge  of  what  seems  to  have  been  the  first  asylum 
in  Italy.  At  Modena,  in  1654,  there  was  an  institution  for 
observation  of  persons  suspected  of  being  mentally 
unsound.  In  Germany,  The  Netherlands,  France  and 


THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL  261 

even  in  Russia,  there  was  a  similar  movement.  Lazar- 
houses  were  now  scarcely  needed;  and  in  Germany, 
convents  were  sometimes  turned  into  lunatic  asylums.  Of 
course,  as  yet,  there  was  no  notion  of  curing  people 
suffering  from  the  various  diseases  which  are  included  in 
the  term  insanity,  but  even  to  provide  separate  custodial 
care  was  a  step  in  advance  of  the  medieval  system. 

Special  institutions  for  the  blind  seem  to  have  come 
still  later.  Just  when  they  first  appeared,  we  do  not 
know.  But  down  to  the  eighteenth  century  the  blind  seem 
almost  everywhere  to  have  been  left  to  the  chance  alms  of 
charitable  individuals.  Sometimes,  it  is  interesting  to 
note,  they  formed  fraternities  of  their  own  in  order 
to  beg  to  better  advantage.  The  education  of  the  blind 
seems  first  to  have  been  put  on  a  solid  basis  by  Valentin 
Haiiy,  who  was  born  in  1745  in  Picardy.  He  first  edu- 
cated a  lad  named  Francois  Le  Sueur,  and  used  him  to 
demonstrate  the  possibilities.  In  1785,  the  Societe 
Philanthropique  allowed  twelve  pounds  a  month  for  the 
benefit  of  twelve  blind  youths.  From  this  an  institution 
grew.  Raised  letters  enabled  the  blind  to  read.  They 
were  also  taught  spinning,  knitting,  making  thread,  cord, 
lace,  upholstering,  printing,  music,  etc. 

It  was  in  Spain,  the  land  of  notable  exceptions,  that 
the  first  systematic  attempt  to  consider  the  deaf  and  dumb 
as  rational  beings,  and  to  show  that  they  were  capable  of 
articulate  speech,  was  made  by  Pedro  de  Ponce,  a  Spanish 
monk,  at  Sahagun,  and  confessor  to  the  King.  This 
benevolent  ecclesiastic  in  1570  instructed  four  deaf  and 
dumb  pupils  in  speech.  In  1620  Juan  Pablo  Bonet  wrote 
a  book  called  "  Reduccion  de  las  letras  y  arte  para  ensenara 
hablar  los  mudos."  He  presented  the  following  methods : 
pantomime,  written  alphabet,  sign  language,  gutteral 
alphabet.  His  students  were  few  in  number  and  belonged, 


262  SOCIAL  WORK 

as  did  those  of  Ponce,  to  noble  and  wealthy  families.  John 
Wallis,  an  Oxford  professor,  succeeded  in  making  some 
deaf  mutes  talk  in  1660.  A  Swiss,  Jean  Conrad  Amman 
(d.  1724),  pretented  to  teach  lip-reading  in  two  months, 
but  he  was  a  pure  fake.  Charles  Michel  de  1'Epee 
(b.  1712)  developed  a  method  of  mimicry,  and  also  em- 
ployed lip-reading.  He  received  rich  children  only  by 
special  arrangement.  It  was  the  poor  deaf  mutes  in  whom 
he  was  most  interested. 

At  the  opening  of  the  modern  period  there  were 
already  foundjing  asylums  in  Italy  and  Spain.  Elsewhere 
these  infants  were  usually  taken  into  the  hospitals. 
Illegitimate  and  some  legitimate  children  were  frequently 
left  at  the  doors  of  churches,  monasteries  and  hospitals. 
During  the  early  modern  period  foundling  asylums  appear 
all  over  Europe. 

The  religious  purpose  of  many  is  illustrated  by  the 
Work-house  and  Foundling  Asylum  established  in 
Dublin  by  the  English  government  (1702-1704).  Its  pur- 
pose was  to  save  the  lives  of  foundlings  "  and  secondly 
to  educate  and  rear  children  taken  charge  of  by  the  Insti- 
tution in  the  Reformed  or  Protestant  Faith  and  thereby  to 
strengthen  and  promote  the  Protestant  Interest  in  Ireland." 

The  ease  with  which  a  mother  could  dispose  of  her 
child,  and  the  awful  mortality  among  these  infants  are  sug- 
gested by  Dudley  Wodworth's  account  of  this  Dublin 
institution  in  1730.  "A  cradle,  or  turning  wheel,  for 
taking  the  infants  in,  and  a  bell  were  provided  at  the 

gate  for  use  by  day  or  night and  this  cradle 

was  but  too  often  only  the  preliminary  coffin  of  thousands 
of  wretched  little  beings  who  were  consigned  to  its 
cold  clasp." 

In  contrast  to  the  medieval  hospital  and  the  slow 
beginnings  of  specialized  care,  consider  the  multiplication 


THE  MEDIEVAL  HOSPITAL  263 

of  highly  specialized  institutions  in  our  modern  com- 
munities. First,  the  hospital  is  a  place  for  the  care  of  sick 
people.  But  not  only  do  we  have  general  hospitals;  we 
have  others  specially  devoted  to  children,  to  maternity 
cases,  to  people  suffering  from  communicable  diseases,  and 
to  psycopathic  patients.  Our  institutions  for  mental 
deviates  are  of  several  different  types.  There  are  custodial 
institutions  for  chronic  cases  of  insanity,  low  grade  imbe- 
ciles and  idiots.  There  are  institutions  of  the  colony  type 
for  convalescents  and  for  higher  grade  feeble  minded  per- 
sons. There  are  semi-educational  institutions  for  morons. 
Similiarly,  our  homes  for  the  blind,  the  deaf  and  the  dumb 
are  custodial  only  for  the  infirm,  are  educational  for  the 
young  and  industrial  for  able-bodied  adults.  Our  children's 
institutions,  while  often  of  the  congregate  orphanage  type, 
are  more  and  more  specialized  as  hospitals,  schools,  and 
receiving  stations.  Our  almshouses  are  more  and  more 
becoming  homes  for  the  aged  and  infirm.  There  are  still 
many  relics  of  the  middle  ages  with  us,  but  this  simple 
enumeration  is  sufficient  to  indicate  the  long  steps  forward 
which  have  already  been  taken. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Clay,  Rotha  Mary:  The  Medieval  Hospitals  of  England.    London: 

Methuen,  1909. 
Bedford,  W.  K. :  Notes  on  Old  Hospitals  of  the  Order.     (St.  John  of 

Jerusalem.)     London:  Harrison,   1881. 
Bedford,  W.  K.  (translator)  :  Regulations  of  the  Old  Hospital  of  the 

Knights  of  St.  John  at  Valetto,  from  a  copy  printed  at  Rome  and 

preserved  in  the  Archives  of  Malta. 
Nutting,  M.  A.,  and  Dock,  L.  L. :  History  of  Nursing.    New  York : 

Putnams,  1907-12.    4  vols. 
Haesar,  F. :  Ceschichte  christlither  Krankenpflege  und  Pftcgerschaf- 

ten.     Berlin.  1857. 
Julius,  Nicolaus  Heinrich :  An  Essay  on  the  Public  Care  for  the  Sick 

as  Produced  by  Christianism.    Hamburg,  1825. 
See  also  list  of  readings  for  Chapter  XIV. 


%  PART  V 

MUTUAL  AID  IN  MEDIEVAL  COMMUNITIES 


CHAPTER  XVI 
MANOR  AND  PARISH 

WHENEVER  we  find  members  of  the  same  family, 
intimate  neighborhood  or  club  helping  one  another,  we 
are  not  accustomed  to  describe  this  as  charity  or  phil- 
anthropy or  social  work.  These  words  do  not  seem  to  fit. 
Charity,  as  such,  appears  to  have  arisen  out  of  the  necessity 
of  doing  something  for  those  who  did  not  belong  to  the 
same  "  primary  "  group  with  the  benefactor.  It  was  their 
detachment,  coupled  with  their  distress,  that  furnished  the 
occasion  for  what  we  call  welfare  work. 

But  even  these  would  hardly  have  called  forth  organ- 
ized philanthropy  had  there  not  been  some  powerful 
incentive.  Now  the  medieval  world  did  have  such  an 
incentive  in  the  doctrine  of  the  religious  merit  of  alms- 
giving. Ordinarily,  the  outsider,  the  foreigner,  the 
stranger,  was  viewed  with  suspicion.  He  was  a  potential, 
if  not  an  actual,  enemy.  But  if  he  were  suffering  or  in 
distress,  he  was  a  potential  asset,  for  he  provided  an  oppor- 
tunity to  exercise  the  Christian  virtue  of  charity.  All  this 
we  have  discussed  in  a  previous  chapter. 

It  is  our  purpose  here  to  study  the  transition  from  the 
simple  situation  in  which  practically  everyone  belonged  to 
some  simple  group  and  stayed  pretty  closely  at  home  to  the 
more  complex  life  of  a  mobile  population  with  many 
detached  individuals.  We  shall  examine  the  parallel 
development  of  mutual  aid  and  neighborliness  into  rela- 
tively formal  and  organized  relief-giving. 


268  SOCIAL  WORK 

PRIMARY  GROUP  LIFE 
FIXITY  AND  ISOLATION 

After  the  break-up  of  Charlemagne's  Empire  in  the 
ninth  century,  the  political  life  of  western  Europe  was 
pretty  thoroughly  decentralized.  The  same  disorganiza- 
tion seems  to  have  occurred  in  the  economic  realm  as  well. 
This  meant  that  through  the  middle  ages  most  people  lived 
in  small  groups  and  had  exceedingly  little  to  do 
with  outsiders. 

To  be  sure,  there  were  feudal  relations,  whereby  the 
lord  of  a  manor  was  bound  to  some  great  overlord,  king 
or  emperor.  But  even  down  into  the  modern  period  this 
had  relatively  little  effect  upon  the  lives  of  the  people  who 
made  up  the  average  medieval  community. 

The  social  structure  of  the  middle  ages  may  be 
described  as  an  enormous  number  of  small  and  practically 
independent  units.  Within  one  of  these  local  groups,  be 
it  manor,  parish,  gild  or  religious  community  everybody 
was  intimately  acquainted  with  everybody  else.  As  a  gen- 
eral thing  there  was  blood  kinship  between  the  members  of 
such  a  group.  Moreover,  they  carried  on  whatever 
activities  were  necessary  for  their  existence,  raising  their 
own  food,  making  their  own  clothing  and  otherwise  sup- 
plying their  various  wants.  Whatever  they  produced  was 
for  home  consumption,  and  trade  with  other  communities 
was  so  slight  as  to  be  well-nigh  negligible. 

The  relation  with  outsiders  and  the  members  of  other 
communities  was  usually  one  of  hostility,  which  meant 
that  there  was  almost  no  social  contact  in  a  real  sense  of 
the  term.  Wars  between  the  various  nobles  involved  the 
population  in  an  almost  continual  state  of  belligerence. 
These  petty  wars  consisted  in  a  sudden  invasion  of  neigh- 
boring territory,  devastation  of  the  fields,  perhaps  a  laying 


MEDIEVAL  COMMUNITIES  269 

siege  to  the  castle,  a  bit  of  open  fighting,  perhaps  the 
capture  of  some  nobleman  and  the  payment  of  a  ransom 
by  his  retainers.  Against  this  continuous  fighting  the 
Church  set  itself,  though  with  rather  limited  success. 
However,  it  did  secure  more  or  less  recognition  for  the 
"  Peace  of  God,"  whereby  women,  clergymen  and  mer- 
chants were  exempted  from  the  fighting,  and  for  the 
"  Truce  of  God,"  which  was  an  attempt  to  restrict  fighting 
so  as  to  have  none  on  Sundays,  Feast  Days,  etc.  At  one 
time  the  "  Truce  of  God "  covered  the  period  from 
Wednesday  night  to  Monday  morning. 

Other  factors  which  contributed  to  the  isolation  of 
the  little  communities  in  which  medieval  folk  lived  were  the 
very  great  difficulties  of  travel.  The  roads  were  exceedingly 
bad,  and  because  of  the  decentralization  of  government, 
every  few  miles  the  traveller  had  to  pass  through  the  ter- 
ritory of  a  new  'ruler.  This  meant  the  payment  of  frequent 
tolls  and  customs  duties,  especially  at  bridges  and  ferries. 
Besides,  the  bridges  often  were  not  kept  up.  And  then 
there  were  the  "Robber  Barons,"  impoverished  noblemen 
who  had  their  retainers  lie  in  wait  for  passing  merchants 
and  others  who  might  be  forced  to  contribute  to  the  lord's 
treasury.  All  these  things  are  bound  up  with  the  fact  that 
until  the  later  middle  ages  there  was  exceedingly  little  com- 
merce, although  this  was  never  wholly  absent  from  the 
countries  of  western  Europe.  Moreover,  there  were 
occasional  travellers  going  on  pilgrimages  or  participating 
in  the  crusades. 

Perhaps  the  difficulties  of  travel  and  the  extreme  isola- 
tion will  be  more  fully  appreciated  if  stated  negatively  in 
terms  of  facilities  which  the  twentieth  century  possesses  but 
which  were  altogether  lacking  in  the  tenth  century.  There 
were  no  railroads,  no  electric  lines,  no  automobiles  or  air- 
planes, no  telephones,  no  telegraph  or  wireless.  There  were 


270  SOCIAL  WORK 

practically  no  hotels,  almost  no  books  and  absolutely  no 
newspapers  or  magazines.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  were 
exceedingly  few  people  who  were  even  able  to  read  and 
write.  Thus  there  were  practically  none  of  those  things 
which  make  it  possible  for  us  to  associate  directly  and 
indirectly  with  people  of  every  race  and  nation.  It  was 
practically  impossible  for  medieval  folk  to  have  any  contact 
with  people  beyond  the  local  group  in  which  they  lived, 
worked,  played  and  worshipped. 

LAWS  AGAINST  DETACHMENT  FROM   THE  GROUP 

Not  only  do  we  find  a  very  high  degree  of  isolation  and 
fixity,  both  geographical  and  social,  but  we  find  also  a 
strong  feeling  against  any  deviation  from  this  manner  of 
living.  Whenever  anyone  undertook  to  break  away  from 
the  community  in  which  he  had  been  born  and  reared,  he 
was  faced  with  well-nigh  insurmountable  difficulties.  The 
majority  of  the  people  were  serfs,  bound  to  the  soil  even 
more  firmly  than  the  Mississippi  negroes  are  bound  to  the 
sugar  and  cotton  plantations.  Travelling  ecclesiastics 
had  to  have  special  credentials  from  a  bishop  or  the  Pope. 
Itinerate  merchants  were  viewed  with  suspicion  and  were 
controlled  by  strict  regulations.  A  few  quotations  from 
early  English  laws  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  fixity  of 
status  and  geographical  location  which  seems  to  have 
been  general  throughout  medieval  Europe.  A  law  of  Ine, 
King  of  Wessex  from  688  to  725,  provided  thus  to  pre- 
vent the  itinerate  merchant  from  handling  stolen  property : 

"  If  a  chapman  traffic  up  among  the  people,  let  him  do 
it  before  witnesses.  If  stolen  property  be  attached  with 
a  chapman,  and  he  have  not  bought  it  before  good  wit- 
nesses, let  him  prove,  according  to  the  wite  (fine),  that  he 
was  neither  privy  (to  the  theft)  nor  thief ;  or  pay  as  wite 
xxxvi  shillings." 


MEDIEVAL  COMMUNITIES  271 

King  Alfred  (871-901)  restricted  those  whom  the 
chapman  took  in  his  train.  "  It  is  also  directed  to  chap- 
men, that  they  bring  the  men  whom  they  take  up  with 
them  before  the  king's  reeve  at  the  folk-mote,  and  let 
it  be  stated  how  many  of  them  there  are ;  and  let  them  take 
such  men  with  them  as  they  may  be  able  afterwards  to 
present  for  justice  at  the  folk-mote." 

King  Ine  also  tried  to  prevent  the  harboring  of  fugi- 
tive theows  (slaves)  and  ceorls  (lowest  freedmen).  "If 
a  man  accuse  a  '  ceorlish '  man  of  harboring  a  fugitive, 
let  him  clear  himself  according  to  his  own  '  wer/  If  he 
can  not,  let  him  pay  for  him  according  to  his  own  '  wer ' ; 
(compensation)  and  the  geithsman  (military  follower  of 
king  or  lord)  in  like  manner  according  to  his  '  wer.' ' 

Again :  If  "  anyone  go  from  his  lord  without  leave,  or 
steal  himself  away  into  another  shire,  and  he  be  dis- 
covered, let  him  go  where  he  was  before,  and  pay  to  his 
lord  Ix  shillings." 

Finally,  we  may  quote  a  paragraph  from  one  of  the 
laws  of  King  Aethelstan.who  reigned  in  the  tenth  century- 
"  And  we  have  ordained :  respecting  those  lordless  men  of 
whom  no  law  can  be  got,  that  the  kindred  be  commanded 
that  they  domicile  him  to  folk-right,  and  find  him  a  lord 
in  the  folk-mote ;  and  if  they  then  will  not  or  can  not  pro- 
duce him  at  the  term,  then  be  he  thenceforth  a  '  flyma ' 
(runaway),  and  let  him  slay  him  for  a  thief  who  can  come 
at  him :  and  whoever  after  that  shall  harbor  him,  let  him 
pay  for  him  according  to  his  '  wer  '  or  by  it  clear  himself." 

Thus  it  seems  clearly  to  have  been  felt  that  the  normal 
thing  was  for  everyone  to  belong  to  some  local  group  and 
to  remain  there  throughout  his  life.  In  so  far  as  there 
was  recognition  of  social  problems,  they  were  felt  to  have 
arisen  in  connection  with  those  who  wandered  away  from 
home,  and  their  solution  was  sought  in  the  preservation 


272  SOCIAL  WORK 

of  an  immobile  population.  This  idea  of  fixity  continued 
for  many  centuries,  attaining  renewed  prominence  in  the 
Statutes  of  Laborers,  which  we  have  already  discussed  in 
connection  with  the  early  English  Poor  Law,  and  persist- 
ing later  in  the  "  Settlement  Acts." 

During  the  middle  ages  such  legislation  was  directed 
against  a  relatively  small  number  of  detached  individuals, 
but  as  time  went  on  and  the  population  became  more  mobile 
increasing  numbers  of  people  were  conscious  of  restriction 
of  their  activity.  The  "  Settlement  Acts  "  in  England  and 
corresponding  laws  on  the  Continent  made  a  man's  village 
almost  a  prison.  Some  vestiges  of  the  notion  that  fixity 
is  the  normal  thing  still  appear.  There  is  still  popular  sus- 
picion of  the  itinerant  merchant,  and  the  immigrant,  and 
the  colored  people  who  go  from  Southern  plantations 
to  the  North.  The  registration  for  military  service  assumes 
a  measure  of  permanence,  and  it  was  strongly  urged  by 
many  influential  persons  after  the  armistice  that  all 
soldiers  should  be  returned  to  the  place  of  their  induction 
or  enlistment.  The  fact  that  these  ideas  persist  suggests 
how  very  powerful  they  must  have  been  in  the  middle  ages 
when  the  incentives  and  facilities  for  travel  were  infinites- 
imal compared  with  those  of  to-day. 

THE  MANOR 

We  come  now  to  a  more  detailed  discussion  of  life  in 
some  of  the  simple  communities  of  the  middle  ages.  The 
simplest  unit  was  known  in  England  as  a  "  manor  "  and 
on  the  Continent  as  a  "fief "  or  "  beneficium."  This 
consisted  usually  of  a  few  hundred  acres  which  were  tech- 
nically the  possession  of  a  lord,  who,  however,  owed  more 
or  less  definite  fealty  to  some  over-lord  or  king.  Under 
him  there  were  sometimes  "free  "  tenants,  with  relatively 
modern  relations  to  the  lord.  But  for  the  most  part,  the 


MEDIEVAL  COMMUNITIES  273 

occupants  of  the  land  were  "tenants  in  common,"  They 
did  not  pay  rent  in  the  modern  sense,  but  owed  the  lord 
certain  services,  such  as  working  on  that  part  of  the  estate 
reserved  by  the  lord  for  his  own  use,  carting,  etc.  In  addi- 
tion, there  were  dues  in  money,  or  in  kind.  Sometimes  a 
poll  tax  was  imposed.  Often  there  were  fees  for  the  use 
of  the  lord's  grist  mill,  wine  press,  etc. 

The  usual  "  fief  "  or  "  manor  "  consisted  of  a  village 
with  several  hundred  acres  of  arable  land  surrounding  it. 
The  cultivators  of  the  soil  lived  in  this  village  rather  than 
in  isolated  farm  houses,  as  do  the  agricultural  folk  in 
America  to-day.  Beyond  the  fields,  there  were  stretches 
of  pasture  and  waste  land  and  of  woodland,  where  the  pigs 
might  forage  for  food  The  arable  area  was  divided  up 
into  two  portions.  A  considerable  part  was  kept  in  the 
hands  of  the  lord,  and  cultivated  under  his  direction,  or 
that  of  his  representative,  for  his  own  personal  benefit. 
This  was  known  as  the  "  demesne."  The  rest  was  par- 
celled out  among  the  tenants.  Now  the  holdings  of  the 
several  tenants  or  villeins,  as  they  frequently  were  called, 
were  not  compact  fields  but  a  number  of  acre  or  half -acre 
strips  scattered  over  the  whole  of  the  tillable  area.  Each 
man  had  several  separate  strips  in  each  of  the  three  fields, 
which  were  not  separated  by  fences  or  hedges,  but  simply 
by  "  balks  "  of  unplowed  turf. 

The  significant  thing  about  the  intermixed  holdings 
in  the  open  fields  was  that  each  man  was  bound  to  cultivate 
his  strips  in  accordance  with  the  rotation  of  crops  observed 
by  his  neighbors.  There  were  also  other  forms  of 
common  action  and  cooperation.  The  cattle  of  all  the 
tenants  were  turned  out  to  graze  over  the  stubble  after  the 
grain  was  cut,  as  well  as  over  the  one  great  field  whose 
turn  it  was  to  lie  fallow  in  that  particular  year.  They 
18 


274  SOCIAL  WORK 

turned  their  cattle  out  upon  the  common  pasture  or 
waste,  sometimes  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  their 
holdings,  and  sometimes  "  without  stint."  They  seem  in 
many  cases  to  have  employed  a  village  herdsman,  shepherd 
or  swineherd.  Thus  the  whole  land  of  the  manor  seems 
to  have  been  cultivated  on  an  elaborate  system  of  joint 
labor,  and  even  the  raising  of  stock  seems  to  have  been 
generally  a  cooperative  enterprise.  These  common  activ- 
ities bound  the  people  together  in  a  manner  far  more 
effective  than  anything  we  know  in  the  modern  world. 
Everyone's  work  was  so  bound  up  with  that  of  the  entire 
community  that  he  had  exceedingly  little  opportunity  for 
individuality  or  to  use  any  initiative,  and  custom  ruled 
supreme.  But  not  only  was  the  economic  life  a  community 
rather  than  an  individual  affair;  the  same  thing  was  true 
of  the  legal,  religious  and  the  general  social  life. 

As  a  usual  thing,  each  manor  had  its  own  law  courts 
for  the  maintenance  of  order.  At  frequent  intervals  court 
was  held  at  the  manor  house  or  the  castle,  attended  by  all 
the  villagers,  for  the  punishment  of  petty  offenses  and  the 
transfer  of  holdings.  All  the  villagers  attended  the  same 
church.  Very  often  so  large  a  portion  of  the  tithes  was 
taken  by  the  bishop  or  other  high  ecclesiastical  official 
that  the  priest  had  to  be  content  with  the  altar  dues,  and 
was  glad  enough  to  get  a  few  acres  of  land,  and  add  to  his 
income  by  joining  in  the  common  agriculture. 

In  general,  the  only  important  social  distinction  was 
between  the  family  of  the  lord,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
villagers  on  the  other.  The  latter  formed  a  very  simple 
and  relatively  undifferentiated  social  organization.  But 
even  among  them,  there  appear  to  have  been  some  distinc- 
tions which  increased  as  the  middle  ages  advanced.  There 
were  frequently  some  whose  holdings  were  unusually  small 
and  who  did  not  possess  any  oxen  or  plow.  There  were 


MEDIEVAL  COMMUNITIES  275 

frequently  some  laborers  whose  status  differed  little,  if 
at  all,  from  that  of  slaves.  But  these  distinctions  were  as 
nothing  when  contrasted  with  the  gulf  that  separated 
the  peasants  from  the  nobility.  The  villagers  all  worked 
in  the  same  way  and  their  manner  of  life  was  the  same. 
The  system  of  joint  cultivation  and  the  life  of  the  village 
street  made  them  feel  their  common  interests.  The 
absence  of  money  also  contributed  to  the  personal  nature 
of  relations  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  manor. 

As  we  have  already  intimated,  the  great  majority  were 
bound  to  the  soil,  at  least  in  the  sense  that  the  lord  would 
demand  a  heavy  fine  before  he  would  give  one  of  his 
vassals  permission  to  leave  the  estate.  A  father  might  buy 
permission  for  his  son  to  become  a  rnonk,  and  younger 
sons  might  go  off  to  one  of  the  towns  to  seek  their  fortune 
in  one  of  the  craft  gilds.  But  ordinarily  a  tenant  would 
not  be  likely  to  leave  unless  he  could  get  some  land  on 
some  other  estate.  This  he  could  not  gain  if  he  went 
empty-handed,  and  he  was  pretty  certain  to  have  to  go 
empty-handed,  because  of  the  general  rule  that  villeins 
should  not  sell  their  live  stock  without  permission. 

MUTUAL  AID 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  there  is  no  historical 
mention  of  charity  within  the  manor  or  fief.  When  any- 
one suffered  misfortune,  he  was  among  friends  and 
relatives  who  were  accustomed  to  share  all  the  experiences 
of  life  and  who  would,  therefore,  attend  to  his  need.  Now 
distress  and  poverty  were  surely  no  less  frequent  in  the 
middle  ages  than  to-day,  but  the  difference  is  that  whereas 
now  we  usually  face  misfortune  as  individuals,  then  the 
burden  was  assumed  by  these  little  compact  neighborhood 
groups.  If  there  were  a  crop  failure  it  affected  the  entire 
estate.  If  there  were  an  epidemic,  the  absence  of  sanitary 


276  SOCIAL  WORK 

conveniences  and  medical  knowledge  meant  that  it  would 
sweep  through  the  entire  village.  If  there  was  a  fire, 
an  accident,  or  a  death,  the  burden  was  not  allowed  to  rest 
upon  an  individual  or  his  immediate  family,  but  was 
shared  by  all  his  neighbors.  There  were  plenty  of  causes  of 
distress,  but  there  was  no  occasion  for  organized  charity. 

THE  PARISH 

THE  RISE  OF  PAROCHIAL  RELIEF 

Very  similar  to  the  manor,  and  sometimes  identical 
with  it,  was  the  parish.  Originally,  of  course,  the  parish 
consisted  in  the  members  of  a  church  in  the  midst  of  a  non- 
Christian  community.  But  with  the  spread  of  Christianity 
and  its  recognition  as  the  state  religion,  the  parish  and  the 
community  came  more  and  more  to  be  identified.  Prob- 
ably it  often  included  a  number  of  small  manors,  but  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  it  was  a  very  restricted  area.  In  the 
beginning  the  parish  was  a  mutual  aid  group,  the  members 
of  which  looked  out  for  each  other,  especially  during  the 
era  of  persecutions.  Moreover,  during  the  early  centuries 
of  the  Christian  Era,  the  number  of  people  who  travelled 
from  place  to  place  was  large  enough  so  that  it  became 
necessary  to  make  some  definite  provision  for  them. 
Hence  arose  the  xenodochia,  which  we  have  previously 
discussed,  and  other  provisions  for  strangers,  the  sick, 
the  aged  and  orphans.  Even  as  late  as  Charlemagne's 
time,  we  find  the  order  going  forth  that  the  tithes  of  each 
parish  must  be  divided  into  three  or  four  parts,  one  of 
which  was  to  be  allotted  to  the  care  of  the  poor. 

The  English  law-givers  seem  to  have  followed  the 
Continental  precedent  very  closely.  An  ordinance  ascribed 
to  Egbert,  Archbishop  of  York,  ran  as  follows:  "The 
priests  are  to  take  tithes  of  the  people,  and  to  make  a 


MEDIEVAL  COMMUNITIES  277 

written  receipt  of  the  names  of  the  givers,  and  according 
to  the  authority  of  the  canons,  they  are  to  divide  them  in 
the  presence  of  men  that  fear  God."  The  first  part  they 
were  to  take  for  the  adornment  of  the  church,  but  the 
second  they  were  "  in  all  humanity  mercifully  to  distribute 
with  their  own  hands  for  the  use  of  the  poor  and 
strangers."  The  third  part,  however,  the  priests  were  to 
reserve  for  themselves. 

DECLINE 

With  the  decentralization  after  the  break-up  of 
Charlemagne's  empire,  and  perhaps  before  that,  the 
parochial  system  of  relief  gave  way.  Probably  the  fact 
that  local  needs  were  met  by  simple  neighborliness 
and  mutual  aid,  together  with  the  diminished  number  of 
travellers,  made  the  formal  charity  of  the  parish  priest 
unnecessary.  At  all  events,  the  historians  recognize  a 
decline  of  relief-giving  in  the  parish.  "  The  old  rules 
as  to  the  employment  of  tithes,  even  as  soon  as  the 
twelfth  century,  were  in  many  places  " — so  we  are  told  by 
a  contemporary — "  not  only  little  regarded  but  well- 
nigh  forgotten." 

REVIVAL 

In  the  late  middle  ages,  there  seems,  however,  to  have 
been  something  of  a  revival  of  parish  philanthropy.  It  is 
quite  natural  that  such  should  have  been  the  case,  for  this 
was  a  period  of  revival  of  commence,  of  the  break-up  of 
feudalism,  and  the  detaching  of  individuals  from  their 
various  primary  groups. 

"  We  can  trace  in  many  places  the  gradual  growth  in 
the  fifteenth  century  of  a  small  capital,  known  as  the 
Church  stock  or  store, — a  fund  which  was  managed  by 
wardens,  who  lent  it  to  trustworthy  persons  on  good 
security  at  a  high  rate  of  interest,  and  from  the  proceeds 


278-  SOCIAL  WORK, 

met  the  cost  of  repairs  to  the  church  fabric,  and  gave 
assistance  to  poor  parishioners.  The  stock  was  sometimes 
live  stock,  a  form  in  which  its  employment  did  not  come 
into  conflict,  as  the  granting  of  loans  might  do,  with  the 
popular  prejudice  against  usury.  '  There  were,'  says  one 
of  the  English  reformers,  '  in  some  towns  (i.e.,  townships 
or  villages)  six,  some  eight,  and  some  a  dozen  kyne,  gyven 
unto  a  stocke,  for  the  reliefe  of  the  poore,  and  used  in  such 
wyse  that  the  poore  cotingers,  which  coulde  make  any 
provision  for  fodder,  had  the  milk  for  a  very  small  hyre ; 
and  then,  the  number  of  the  stocke  reserved,  all  maner  of 
vailes  besydes — both  the  hyre  of  the  mylke,  and  the  pryces 
of  the  yonge  veales,  and  olde  fat  wares — was  disposed  to 
the  reliefe  of  the  poore.'  ' 

"  Where  there  was  no  permanent  stock  the  same  two 
purposes,  the  repairs  of  the  church  and  the  relief  of  the 
poor,  were  often  provided  for  from  the  proceeds  of 
Church  Ales  at  Whitsuntide, — festive  gathering  usually  in 
the  Church  House  or  Church  Tavern,  where  the  ale  which 
had  been  brewed  from  the  gifts  of  corn  was  paid  for  by 
the  drinkers ;  so  that,  as  a  bitter  Puritan  put  it,  '  he  that 
sat  the  closest  to  it  was  accounted  the  godliest  man  of  all.' ' 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  parish  was  adopted  in  the 
Protestant  countries  as  a  civil  unit,  primarily  for  the 
purpose  of  administering  poor  relief.  This  development 
we  have  already  traced  in  England,  and  we  may  fairly 
assume  that  it  was  not  greatly  different  in  the  other 
countries  that  broke  away  from  the  Church  of  Rome. 

MODERN  PARALLELS 

In  conclusion,  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  similarity 
between  the  simple  neighborhood  life  of  the  medieval 
manor  and  parish  with  certain  isolated  communities  of 
modern  America.  In  the  back  country  of  the  Appalachian 


MEDIEVAL  COMMUNITIES  279 

Mountains,  there  can  still  be  found  districts  in  which 
everyone  is  more  or  less  related  to  all  the  rest,  where 
everyone  has  intimate  knowledge  of  all  his  neighbors,  and 
where  there  is,  in  spite  of  an  individualism  that  was  absent 
from  the  medieval  world,  a  certain  community  spirit. 
At  least  as  over  against  outsiders,  all  the  members 
of  such  a  community  share  the  same  religious  experiences, 
the  same  amusements,  and  cooperate  in  certain  parts  of 
their  work,  as  in  barn-raisings  and  corn-huskings.  There 
is  poverty,  but  not  pauperism;  there  is  mutual  aid,  but 
not  charity. 

The  absence  of  any  indigenous  charities  in  such  com- 
munities is  evidence  of  the  correctness  of  our  thesis  that 
organized  philanthropy  arose  as  a  means  of  dealing  with 
people  who  were  detached  from  their  primary  group. 
Many  a  Red  Cross  field  representative  can  testify  to  the 
difficulty  of  creating  an  interest  in  social  work,  not  only 
among  these  most  isolated  communities,  but  in  the  rural 
districts  generally.  The  need  is  not  felt  because  the  mem- 
bers of  these  more  or  less  self-sufficing  groups  help  each 
other  in  time  of  need  without  any  formality.  In  case  of  a 
fire,  sickness,  accident,  death,  or  other  misfortune,  the 
neighbors  turn  in  and  help,  offering  food  and  clothing, 
nursing  the  sick  and  comforting  the  bereaved. 

The  one  important  difference  between  the  medieval 
situation  and  the  modern  isolated  community  is  that  the 
latter  can,  if  it  wishes,  avail  itself  of  professional  services 
which  will  meet  these  same  needs  in  a  more  effective 
manner  than  will  neighborliness  alone.  But  in  the  middle 
ages  there  were  no  public  health  nurses  and  no  trained 
social  workers.  The  members  of  any  local  group  possessed 
practically  as  great  knowledge  and  skill  as  did  any  outsider. 
In  other  words,  there  was  not  yet  differentiated  any  pro- 
fessional class  or  classes. 


280  SOCIAL  WORK 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Andrews,  Chas.  M. :  The  Old  English  Manor.  Baltimore :  Johns  Hop- 
kins, 1892. 

Davies,  Maude  F. :  Life  in  an  English  Village.  London :  Unwin,  1909. 
Gomme,  Geo   L. :  The  Village  Community.    London,  1890. 


Hone,  N.  J. 
ton,  1906 
Seebohm,  F. 
Sims,  N.  L. 


The  Manor  and  Manorial  Records.    New  York :  Dut- 

The  English  Village  Community.    London,  1005. 
The  Rural  Community.    New  York.    Scribners,  1920. 


Ashley,  W.  J. :  An  Introduction  to  English  Economic  History. 
London :  Longmans  Green,  1893,  2  vols. 

Trotter,  Eleanor:  Seventeenth  Century  Life  in  the  Country  Parish. 
Cambridge :  University  Press,  1919. 

Cambridge  Medieval  History.  New  York:  Macmillan,  1911-13,  2  vols. 

Munro,  D.  C,  and  Sellery,  G.  C. :  Medieval  Civilisation.  New  York : 
Century,  1904. 

Pennsylvania  Translations  and  Reprints.  IV,  3.  Documents  Illus- 
trative of  Feudalism.  1898,  III,  5.  English  Manorial  Documents. 
Philadelphia,  1896. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  MEDIEVAL  GILDS 

THROUGHOUT  the  middle  ages  the  vast  majority  of 
people  lived  under  conditions  very  similar  to  those 
described  in  the  preceding  chapter.  In  other  words,  society 
as  controlled  by  the  Church  and  nobility  was  almost  entirely 
agricultural.  But  there  were  always  a  few  persons  moving 
about  from  place  to  place,  usually  going  on  some  pil- 
grimage, crusade  or  war.  Out  of  the  movements  of  the 
roving  Normans,  the  general  spirit  of  knight-errantry, 
the  pilgrimages  and  crusades,  there  came  a  movement 
of  goods  which  was  the  beginning  of  modern  European 
commerce.  It  was  the  Italians  who  first  appeared  in  this 
new  activity,  for  they  provided  transports  and  furnished 
supplies  for  the  crusaders.  On  their  return  voyages  they 
began  to  bring  back  Oriental  cargoes.  Thus  a  taste  for 
foreign  goods  was  cultivated  and  industry  was  stimulated 
to  produce  goods  for  exchange  with  the  East. 

MERCHANT  GILDS 

Presently  there  grew  up  organizations  remotely  similar 
to  our  Chambers  of  Commerce.  These  were  known  as 
"  merchant  gilds,"  and  were  formed  primarily  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  and  maintaining  the  privilege  of 
carrying  on  trade.  Because  their  privileges  were  often  very 
dearly  bought  from  the  nobility  and  the  royal  power, 
they  were  jealously  guarded  by  the  members  of  the  gild, 
who  frequently  acquired  monopolies  of  the  trade  in  their 
home  towns,  and  also  liberty  to  trade  in  other  towns. 

The  "  merchant  gilds "  seem  to  have  made  their 

281 


282  SOCIAL  WORK 

appearance  in  the  course  of  the  eleventh  century.  During 
the  next  hundred  years  or  so,  they  came  to  be  a  recognized 
part  of  the  town  constitution,  and  performed  numerous 
governmental  functions.  They  were  from  the  outset  com- 
posed of  the  most  influential  citizens,  and  hence  early 
succeeded  in  identifying  the  trade  monopoly  with  the 
welfare  of  the  town.  After  the  thirteenth  century  the 
merchant  gilds  were  gradually  transformed,  sometimes 
merging  their  individuality  in  that  of  the  municipal  gov- 
ernment, sometimes  becoming  religious  fraternities,  or 
otherwise  losing  their  original  character. 

MUTUAL  AID  AND  FORMAL  RELIEF 

These  organizations  were  practically  closed  corpora- 
tions. They  maintained  their  trade  monopoly  to  the 
exclusion  of  their  fellow  townsmen,  and  made  admission 
to  the  gild  exceedingly  difficult.  But  for  those  who 
belonged  to  this  inner  circle,  there  was  a  close  community 
of  interest  and  a  sharing  of  the  daily  experiences  of  life. 
The  gild  itself  was  just  such  a  primary  group,  with 
intimate  personal  relations,  as  was  the  manor,  which  was 
discussed  in  the  preceding  chapter.  This  being  the  case, 
it  is  quite  natural  that  we  should  find  that  the  gilds 
assumed  responsibility  for  the  bereaved  widows  and 
orphans  of  their  members,  educated  the  latter,  and  if  they 
were  girls  provided  them  with  dowries.  For  the  sick 
members  they  established  special  beds  in  the  hospitals. 
Sometimes  this  was  done  in  that  simple  unaffected  way 
which  we  have  described  as  mutual  aid  or  neighborliness ; 
sometimes  when  the  group  was  larger  and  personal  con- 
tacts less  direct,  somewhat  more  formal  means  we're 
provided  for  the  care  of  unfortunate  members.  For  ex- 
ample, if  a  gildsman  of  Southampton  were  put  into  prison 
in  any  part  of  England,  the  alderman  or  steward 


THE  MEDIEVAL  GILDS  283 

and  others  were  required  to  go  at  the  expense  of  the  gild 
to  procure  his  release.  At  Berwick  "  two  or  three  of  the 
gild  were  bound  to  labour  on  behalf  of  any  other  in  danger 
of  losing  life  or  limb,  though  for  only  two  days,  at  the 
gild's  expense." 

A  society  of  merchants  at  Bristol,  England,  in  1445, 
provided  for  poor  seamen  within  the  old  hospital  of  St. 
Bartholomew.  Upon  arrival  in  port,  masters  and 
mariners  alike  contributed  to  this  institution,  because 
"  the  wheche  prest  and  pore  peple  may  nott  be  founden  ne 
sustayned  withoute  grete  cost."  The  supporters  of  this 
institution  really  constituted  a  sort  of  benefit  club,  for 
members  became  eligible  for  admission  only  after  paying 
their  dues  for  seven  years.  In  general,  the  relief  work  of 
the  merchant  gilds  seems,  like  their  other  activities,  to  have 
been  almost  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  members.  In  the 
institution  just  cited  the  sailors  were  apparently  regarded 
as  a  port  of  the  gild  system. 

CRAFT  GILDS 
EXCLUSIVENESS  AND  COMMUNITY  OF  INTERESTS 

This  exclusiveness  is  still  more  apparent  in  the  case  of 
the  "  craft  gilds,"  which  had  their  rise  during  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries.  The  craft  gild,  instead  of  being 
a  merchants'  organization,  was  an  association  of  all  the 
artisans  engaged  in  a  particular  industry  in  a  particular 
town.  The  primary  purpose  seems  to  have  been  such 
supervision  of  the  simple  manufacturing  as  would  secure 
the  observance  of  generally  accepted  standards  of  good 
work.  The  artisans  seem  to  have  taken  the  initiative  them- 
selves, but  were  presently  recognized  by  the  towns  and  by 
the  royal  governments  as  the  proper  agency  for  controlling 
the  making  of  goods.  By  the  fifteenth  century  practically 


284  SOCIAL  WORK 

every  occupation  that  engaged  a  score  of  men  came  to  have 
an  organization  of  its  own  with  regular  meetings,  elected 
officers,  prescribed  payments  for  common  purposes,  the 
right  of  search,  certain  powers  of  jurisdiction,  common 
religious  interests  or  practises,  and  a  definite  position  in 
the  civic  constitution. 

A  number  of  things  contributed  to  the  development 
and  preservation  of  a  community  spirit  among  the  mem- 
bers of  a  craft  gild.  Ea'rly  in  the  fourteenth  century  some 
of  the  English  and  German  crafts  had  modest  meeting 
places ;  and  toward  the  end  of  that  century  they  began  to 
erect  buildings  for  themselves,  to  which  were  sometimes 
added  chapels  and  almshouses.  The  members  of  each 
craft  usually  lived  on  the  same  street,  or  at  least  in  the 
same  neighborhood,  as  is  indicated  by  the  street  names 
of  some  of  the  older  towns.  They  naturally  attended  the 
same  parish  church.  They  frequently  organized  religious 
fraternities.  Also,  the  gilds  exercised  certain  legal  juris- 
diction over  their  members,  being  frequently  empowered 
to  deal  with  petty  disputes  or  breaches  of  craft 
regulations.  All  these  things  served  to  bind  the  members 
together  into  a  well-knit  community. 

In  the  beginning  the  gilds  were  apparently  quite  demo- 
cratic. Where  a  man  employed  others  to  work  with  him 
in  his  shop  or  house,  their  relations  were  of  a  family  or 
patriarchal  character.  The  workman  usually  lived  with 
his  employer,  and  shared  in  nearly  all  of  his  daily  activities. 
Moreover,  the  hard  working  journeyman  expected  to  be 
able  in  a  few  years  to  become  an  independent  master,  so 
that  there  was  no  social  gulf  between  employer 
and  employe. 

But  as  time  went  on,  this  situation  changed.  Gild 
regulations  made  it  increasingly  difficult  for  journeymen 
to  become  masters.  Indeed,  any  admission  to  the  craft  was 


THE  MEDIEVAL  GILDS  285 

closely  regulated  by  restriction  upon  apprenticeship.  The 
various  ordinances  usually  insisted  upon  an  apprentice- 
ship of  at  least  seven  years,  and  sometimes  this  was 
extended  to  eight,  ten  or  twelve  years.  There  was  a  limit 
upon  the  number  of  apprentices  who  might  be  taken  by 
any  one  master,  and  large  fees  were  charged  for  admission 
to  apprenticeship,  and  later  to  the  "  fellowship  of  the 
mistery."  In  the  course  of  the  fourteenth  century  there 
began  to  appear  a  "  laboring  class  "  in  the  sense  of  men 
who  were  neither  apprentices  nor  masters  and  who  found 
it  exceedingly  difficult  to  set  up  in  business  for  themselves. 

In  the  beginning  all  members  of  the  craft  had  been 
accustomed  to  wear  some  common  token  or  costume,  but 
before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  "  liveries  "  had 
become  so  expensive  that  only  the  wealthier  members  could 
afford  them.  Presently  the  "livery"  became  a  superior  grade 
to  which  the  more  substantial  members  were  admitted  as 
an  honor,  and  upon  the  payment  of  heavy  fees.  In  general 
the  "  livery  "  included  most  if  not  all  of  the  employers. 
But  there  was  an  even  more  select  body,  known  in  England 
as  the  Court  of  Assistance,  which,  beginning  as  a  sort  of 
informal  committee  composed  of  the  wealthier  brethren 
in  the  "  livery,"  became  presently  a  limited  and  self- 
continuing  council  which  was  well-nigh  absolute  in  the 
affairs  of  the  society. 

Over  against  the  masters  there  grew  up  organizations 
of  the  journeymen,  especially  in  Germany  and  France. 
They  seem  to  have  begun  in  the  form  of  religious  fra- 
ternities, and  to  have  had  at  the  outset  the  bitter  opposition 
of  the  master  craftsmen,  who  regarded  it  as  an  encroach- 
ment upon  their  position  and  an  instrument  for  securing 
higher  wages.  The  masters  with  the  aid  of  civic 
authorities  do  not  seem  to  have  been  able  to  suppress  this 
movement,  so  after  a  time  they  changed  their  policy  and 


286  SOCIAL  WORK 

eventually  managed  to  bring  it  under  their  own  super- 
vision. The  journeymen  they  conciliated  by  permission 
to  hold  their  own  meetings,  and  the  masters  on  their  side 
were  able  to  relieve  themselves  to  some  extent  of  the  duty 
of  providing  for  sick  journeymen.  These  workingmen's 
organizations  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  the  forerunners  of 
of  modern  trade  unions,  because  they  were  so  completely 
overshadowed  by  the  wealthier  companies  to  which  they 
were  attached  that  they  gradually  lost  all  initiative  and 
became  a  bit  of  mere  formalism,  which  was  finally 
abolished  without  any  real  loss  to  the  journeymen. 

On  the  whole,  and  particularly  during  their  early 
history,  the  craft  gilds  constituted  simple  neighborhood 
organizations  of  people  who  shared  their  work,  their 
living  and  their  religious  activities.  And  even  in  spite  of 
the  class  divisions,  which  grew  up  in  their  midst,  they 
retained  a  sense  of  solidarity  over  against  members  of 
other  crafts  and  outsiders.  Many  municipal  ordinances 
and  royal  orders  were  issued  for  the  purpose  of  restricting 
people  to  the  trade  in  which  they  had  been  apprenticed, 
and  preventing  the  practise  of  any  craft  except  by  those 
who  were  duly  authorized  by  the  appropriate  gild.  This 
exclusiveness  shows  itself  in  the  general  limitation  of 
relief-giving  to  the  members  of  a  given  gild. 

MUTUAL    AID   AND   FORMAL    RELIEF 

As  in  the  case  of  the  merchant  gilds,  the  care  of  the 
unfortunate  seems  to  have  gone  forward  very  largely  as  a 
matter  of  simple  neighborhood  assistance.  But  with  the 
growth  in  numbers  and  particularly  with  the  division  into 
the  three  social  classes,  it  became  a  more  formal  matter. 
Thus  we  learn  from  the  ordinances  of  a  gild  of  white- 
tawyers,  or  leather  dressers,  in  1346,  that  they  had  a 
common  box  for  subscriptions,  out  of  which  seven  pence 


THE  MEDIEVAL  GILDS  287 

a  week  were  paid  to  any  man  of  the  trade  who  had  fallen 
into  poverty  through  old  age  or  inability  to  work,  and 
seven  pence  a  week  likewise  to  a  poor  man's  widow  so 
long  as  she  remained  unmarried.  "If  anyone  of  the  said 
craft  shall  depart  this  life  and  have  not  wherewithal  to  be 
buried,  he  shall  be  buried  at  the  expense  of  the  common 
box,  and  when  anyone  of  the  said  trade  shall  die,  all  those 
of  the  same  trade  shall  go  to  the  vigil  and  make  offering  on 
the  morrow."  Another  clause  orders  that  "  those  of  the 
trade  "  shall  aid  a  member  who  can  not  finish  the  work 
he  has  undertaken  "  so  that  the  said  work  be  not 
lost."  At  first  there  were  no  permanent  funds  for  relief 
work,  and  when  bequests  were  made,  they  were  usually  to 
be  distributed  at  the  funeral  or  upon  the  anniversary  of  the 
testator's  death.  But  with  the  increase  of  the  industrial 
and  trading  population,  various  gilds  began  to  provide 
lodging  for  destitute  members.  Later  with  the  help  of 
legacies  for  that  purpose,  they  erected  almshouses  or  hos- 
pitals. Sometimes  they  would  purchase  the  lands  or 
buildings  of  some  existing  institution  and  use  it  for  the 
care  of  their  own  members. 

Thus,  at  Lynn,  one  of  the  ordinances  of  the  town  gild 
provided  that  relief  should  be  given  to  any  brother  in 
poverty,  either  from  the  common  fund  or  from  the  private 
purses  of  the  gild  brothers.  A  piece  of  land  was  bequeathed 
to  the  gild  partly  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  the  poor, 
and  we  are  told  thirty  pounds  a  year  was  distributed  to 
the  poor  brethren,  to  blind,  lame  and  sick  persons,  and  for 
other  charitable  purposes.  We  learn  that  the  merchant 
tailors  of  Bristol  secured  permission  "  to  purchase  lands 
and  tenements  towards  the  maintenance  of  a  chaplain  to 
sing  forever  at  the  altar  of  Saint  John  Baptist,  within  the 
parish  church  of  Saint  Ewens,"  and  that  they  had  adopted 
the  same  plan  "  for  the  relief,  succor  and  comfort  of  the 


288  SOCIAL  WORK 

poor  brethren  and  sistern  of  the  same  fraternity  fallen 
in  decay,"  who  were  assisted  from  the  revenues  of  the 
lands  and  possessions  "  given  by  sundry  persons  "  for  that 
purpose.  Thus  the  craft  gilds  made  provision  for  their  own 
unfortunate  members.  But  there  is  exceedingly  little 
evidence  that  they  extended  their  philanthropy  to  out- 
siders. In  other  words,  we  have  here  primarily  a  case  of 
mutual  aid  among  those  who  belonged  to  these  relatively 
simple  groups,  rather  than  charitable  organizations. 
However,  we  have  already  observed  the  way  in  which  the 
almost  spontaneous  neighborliness  proved  insufficient  and 
came  more  and  more  to  be  supplemented  by  some  formal 
and  systematic  means. 

RELIGIOUS  GILDS 

A  similar  development  may  be  traced  in  the  religious 
fraternities  with  which  the  term  gild  came  to  be  associated 
before  the  Reformation.  Some  of  these  were  started  as 
organizations  of  the  journeymen,  and  quite  as  much  for 
economic  as  for  religious  purposes.  In  France  many  of 
them  were  made  up  of  peasants.  But  whatever  other 
interests  they  may  have  had,  these  fraternities  were 
primarily  cooperative  soul-saving  associations.  Their 
definite  and  avowed  purpose  seems  to  have  been  the 
securing  of  religious  merit  for  their  members ;  at  first  by 
candles  and  masses,  then  through  mutual  aid,  and  finally 
by  alms  to  outsiders.  Even  their  charitable  activities  were 
regarded  as  a  definite  part  of  the  religious  enterprise.  The 
alms  were  given  not  merely  for  the  purpose  of  relieving 
distress,  but  quite  as  much  for  the  acquisition  of  spiritual 
benefits  to  the  donors. 

This  emphasis  upon  the  religious  merit  of  almsgiving 
becomes  still  more  apparent  when  we  note  the  relation 
between  the  religious  gilds  and  the  chantries.  Now  the 


THE  MEDIEVAL  GILDS  289 

chantry  was  usually  established  by  the  legacy  of  some 
person  anxious  to  provide  for  his  eternal  welfare.  Thus 
Sir  John  Fastolf,  whose  will  is  dated  1459,  established 
"  within  the  great  mission  at  Castre,  by  him  lately  edified, 
a  college  of  six  religious  men,  monks,  or  secular  priests, 
and  six  poor  folk  to  pray  for  his  soul  and  the  souls  of  his 
wife,  his  father  and  mother,  and  others  that  he  was 
beholden  to  in  perpetuity." 

To  these  chantries  a  small  endowment  was  often 
attached  for  the  provision  of  alms.  Thus  out  of  some 
twenty-five  chantries  in  Bristol,  the  commissioners  of 
Edward  VI  found  that  fourteen  were  spending  a  portion 
of  their  funds  "  in  relief  of  the  poor  people  yearly."  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  about  seven-eighths  of  the  funds 
were  paid  to  the  "  incumbent  for  his  living  in  the  service  " 
and  only  one-eighth  to  the  poor.  The  primary  object  of 
this  endowed  almsgiving  was,  of  course,  the  same  as  that 
of  the  chantry.  It  was,  namely,  the  good  of  the  founder's 
soul.  This  is  indicated  in  the  regulations  of  Fastolf  that 
his  goods  might  be  so  faithfully  distributed  in  "  almsful 
deeds  and  charitable  works  that  he  might  obtain  the  more 
hasty  deliverance  of  his  soul  from  the  painful  flames  of 
the  fire  of  Purgatory." 

MUTUAL  AID 

Because  of  such  facts  as  these  Ashley  has  described 
these  religious  fraternities  as  "  cooperative  chantries." 
They  were  organizations  to  secure  exactly  the  same  ends  as 
the  chantries,  but  were  created  for  the  most  part  by  people 
not  sufficiently  wealthy  to  establish  foundations  for  their 
individual  benefit. 

Many  of  these  brotherhoods  did  not  profess  to  give 
any  material  relief  at  all.  They  limited  their  activities  to 
the  provision  of  altar  lights,  funeral  masses,  the  services 

19 


290  SOCIAL  WORK 

of  priests  or  pageants.  But  very  frequently  contributions 
were  levied  for  particular  cases  of  need,  and  in  some 
instances  poverty-stricken  members  were  assigned  a 
weekly  pension.  In  a  few  isolated  cases  members  were 
allowed  to  borrow  from  the  common  box  enough  to  give 
them  a  fresh  start  in  business. 

Lallemand  tells  us  that  in  almost  all  of  the  little  cities 
and  in  the  majority  of  the  villages  of  southwestern 
France,  there  existed  confreries  and  associations  of  mutual 
charity  among  the  cultivators.  These  organizations  seem 
to  have  included,  along  with  the  laborers  and  tenants,  a 
certain  number  of  bourgeois  and  ecclesiastics.  The 
organization  comprised  two  or  three  officers  known  as 
majoraux,  one  or  two  members  charged  with  the  convoca- 
tions and  visitors  and  caretakers  for  the  sick. 

It  is  worth  while  to  observe  that  in  the  religious 
fraternity,  as  well  as  in  the  merchant  and  craft  gilds,  relief 
was  given  almost  exclusively  to  members.  In  the 
beginning  this  was  informal  and  unorganized,  but  later  it 
took  definite  shape  under  the  influence  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  religious  merit  of  almsgiving.  Very  slowly  there  was 
an  expansion  of  this  mutual  aid  into  charities  which  bene- 
fited outsiders  as  well  as  those  who  belonged  to  the  gilds. 
But  in  general,  aid  of  detached  individuals  was  provided 
either  by  the  ecclesiastical  institutions  or  govern- 
mental agencies. 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

d'A venal,  George :  Histoire  economique  de  la  propriete,  des  salaires, 

etc.,  1200-1800.  Paris,  1894-1919,  6  vols. 
Brentano,   Lujo:   On   the   History  and  Development   of   Gilds  and 

Origin  of  Trade  Unions.    In  Smith,  J.  T.,  English  Gilds. 
Ditchfield,  P.  H. :  The  City  Companies  of  London  and  Their  Good 

Works;  a  record  of  their  history,  charity  and  treasure.    London: 

Dent,  1904. 


THE  MEDIEVAL  GILDS  291 

Dorcn,   Alfred:    Untersuchungcn   sur   Geschichte   dcr  Kaufmanns- 

yilden  dcs  Mittealters.    Leipzig :  Duncker  u.  Humblot,  1893. 
Gilbert,  William:   The  City:  An  Inquiry  into  the  Corporation,  its 

Livery  Companies,  and  the  Administration  of  Their  Charities  and 

Endowments.     London :  Daldy  Isbister,   1877. 
Gross,  Charles :  The  Gild  Merchant.    Oxford,  1890,  2  vols. 
von  Hegel,  Karl :  Stadte  und  Gilden  dcr  germanischen  Volker  im 

Mittelalter.     Leipzig:  Duncker  u.  Humblot,  1891,  2  vols. 
Hibbert,  F.  A.:   The  Influence  and  Development  of  English  Gilds. 

Cambridge:  University  Press,  1891. 
Levasseur,  Emile:  Histoire  dcs  Classes  Ouvriercs  et  de  I' Industrie 

en  Prance  avant  1789.     Vol.  2,   Bk.  5. 
Millctt,   F.   B.:   Craft-Guilds  of  the   Thirteenth   Century  in  Paris. 

Kingston:  Jackson  Press,  1915. 
Renard,  G.  F. :  Guilds  in  the  Middle  Ages.    Trans,  by  D.  Terry. 

London:  Bell,  1919. 
Umvin,    Geo. :     The    Gilds    and    Companies    of    London.     London : 

Methuen,  1909. 
Waltzing,  J.  P. :  Lcs  Corporations  Romaines  et  la  Charitc.    Louvain, 

1895- 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS 
RISE  OF  THE  TOWNS 

IT  is  hard  for  us  of  the  twentieth  century  to  realize  how 
completely  rural  was  the  life  of  the  middle  ages.  The  old 
Roman  towns  had  gradually  decayed.  The  barbarians  over- 
ran them  and  discouraged  arts  and  crafts.  The  population 
that  was  not  destroyed  drifted  away.  In  the  age  of 
feudalism  there  was  little  reason  for  the  existence  of  towns. 
But  with  the  increase  of  commerce,  which  as  we  have  seen 
especially  marked  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  more  merchants  travelled  through  the  country. 
Frequently  a  town  would  spring  up  through  the  gathering 
of  people  for  a  market  held  by  some  noble  who  wanted  to 
improve  his  estate.  Very  often  this  market  or  fair  was 
held  at  some  ford  or  crossroad.  At  first  the  merchants  sold 
salt,  fish  and  iron  to  the  peasants.  Or  more  likely  they 
bartered  them  for  the  agricultural  products.  But  as  time 
went  on,  the  variety  of  goods  increased,  foreign  trade  was 
developed,  and  small  manufactures  sprang  up. 

The  towns  developed  first  in  Italy,  which  was  probably 
least  affected  by  the  Germanic  invasions.  Moreover,  Italy 
was  conveniently  located  for  the  new  trade  which  sprang 
up  in  connection  with  the  Crusades.  The  Italian  nobles 
were  less  interested  in  war  than  those  of  northern  Europe 
and  were  more  ready  to  put  their  surplus  wealth  into  the 
new  trading  companies. 

Originally,  many  of  the  towns  had  belonged  to  some 
nobleman's  fief  or  manor  and  its  inhabitants  had  been  under 
much  the  same  servile  obligations  to  the  lord  as  were  the 
292 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS  293 

rural  serfs.  But  as  the  towns  grew  and  increased  in  wealth 
they  gradually  secured  privileges  for  themselves.  They 
started  off  with  a  few  necessary  activities,  such  as  main- 
taining the  water  supply,  building  a  wall  or  keeping  a  river 
channel  clear.  Additional  rights  they  bought  from  the 
nobles,  kings  or  emperors,  or  secured  them  by  fighting. 

The  French  kings  sporadically  used  the  towns  to  offset 
the  nobles.  The  nobles,  in  their  turn,  needed  money  and 
they,  too,  sold  privileges  to  the  towns.  In  Germany  the 
towns  were  likewise  a  sort  of  foot-ball  kicked  back 
and  forth  between  the  emperor,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
nobility  on  the  other.  In  England  the  central  power, 
which  had  never  broken  down  to  the  extent  it  had 
on  the  Continent,  quite  regularly  favored  the  towns  for 
financial  reasons. 

Many  of  these  new  towns  were  ruled  by  oligarchies  of 
merchant  princes.  In  fact,  this  seems  to  have  been  quite 
general  in  all  of  the  countries  of  western  Europe.  In  many 
places  the  members  of  the  merchant  gilds  were  the  citizens 
of  the  towns.  The  machinery  of  the  gild  and  of  the 
municipal  government  frequently  coalesced.  In  other  cases 
the  craft  gilds  were  the  more  influential.  But  whichever 
it  might  be,  it  was  only  persons  properly  admitted  to  one 
of  these  bodies  that  could  carry  on  any  occupation  within 
the  city  limits,  or  enjoy  any  of  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  burghership.  In  many  instances  the  town  council  itself 
was  wholly,  or  partly,  composed  of  the  elected  represent- 
atives of  the  gilds  or  companies. 

With  the  further  increase  in  wealth  the  "  greater  " 
companies  came  to  exercise  preponderating  influence.  For 
example,  in  London  the  mayor  was  exclusively  chosen 
from  one  of  the  twelve  "  greater  "  companies,  and  many 
other  privileges  were  enjoyed  by  these  wealthy  groups  to 
the  exclusion  of  some  fifty  "  lesser  "  companies.  Now 


294  SOCIAL  WORK 

this  preeminence  in  London  was  closely  paralleled  by  the 
position  of  the  Arti  Maggiori  in  Florence,  of  the  six  Corps 
de  Metiers  in  Paris,  and  of  the  Herrenziinfte  in  Basel. 

Although  less  isolated  than  the  manors,  the  earlier 
towns  had  a  very  limited  range  of  contacts  and  were 
trading  centers  for  very  restricted  areas.  In  England  this 
was  markedly  true  as  late  as  the  fifteenth  century.  As  a 
consequence  we  find  that  the  towns  were  in  their  way  just 
as  exclusive  as  were  the  gilds.  However  many  distinctions 
there  might  be  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  they 
all  were  united  in  opposition  to  outsiders.  Thus,  in 
England,  we  find  a  petition  from  the  merchants  of  South- 
ampton that  certain  restrictions  be  placed  upon  merchants 
coming  to  the  town  from  Winchester  or  Salisbury.  The 
word  foreigner  was  applied  not  only  to  those  of  other 
countries,  but  indeed  to  anyone  who  did  not  belong  in 
the  town. 

Not  only  did  the  opposition  to  the  outsiders  serve  to 
bind  the  townsmen  together,  but  certain  common  activities 
contributed  to  the  development  of  a  community  spirit. 
The  towns  frequently  maintained  market  houses  and 
market  stalls.  Some  of  them  had  acquired  control  of  the 
manorial  mills ;  in  some  places  there  were  municipal  ovens 
or  bake-houses;  and  quite  generally  there  were  common 
pastures  for  the  cattle  of  the  citizens.  Admittedly  these 
new  medieval  towns  were  far  from  democratic,  but  they 
did  create  a  frame-work  for  a  larger  social  organization 
than  would  ever  have  been  possible  under  feudalism.  The 
manors,  and  even  the  gilds,  were  practically  limited  in 
scope  to  groups  of  people  who  came  daily  face  to  face  with 
one  another.  But  the  town  was  a  more  complex  and 
a  larger  unit.  It  brought  together  for  business  purposes 
groups  of  people  who  otherwise  might  have  exceedingly 
little  to  do  with  one  another.  Nevertheless,  the  early 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS  295 

towns  were  themselves  small  enough  so  that  there  could 
grow  up  a  certain  community  of  interest  and  a  group  life, 
less  intimate  and  personal  than  in  the  manors  and  within 
the  individual  gilds  of  the  town,  but  on  the  other  hand 
more  comprehensive  and  extensive. 

REPRESSION  OF  BEGGING 

As  in  the  case  of  the  nation,  so  with  the  towns,  one  of 
the  earliest  official  activities  with  reference  to  the  poor  was 
the  attempt  to  repress  begging. 

A  London  Proclamation  of  1359  declared  that  vaga- 
bonds "  do  waste  divers  alms  which  would  otherwise  be 
given  to  many  poor  folks,  such  as  lepers,  blind,  halt  and 
persons  oppressed  with  old  age  and  divers  other  maladies." 
This  Proclamation  ordered  them  to  leave  the  city  at  once 
on  pain  of  being  put  into  the  stocks.  In  1375  it  was 
ordered  that  "  no  one  who  by  handicraft  or  the  labor  of  his 
body  can  earn  his  living  shall  counterfeit  the  begging 
poor,"  that  is,  the  impotent. 

In  Geneva  false  poor  abounded.  So  in  1458  the 
"  chapitre,"  during  a  vacancy  of  the  episcopal  chair,  at 
the  request  of  the  trustees  (syndics)  and  councillors  of  the 
city,  addressed  to  the  people  a  most  judicious  charge, 
which  said  in  effect : 

"  Among  the  works  which  divine  precepts  impose  upon 
all  of  the  faithful,  helping  the  poor  and  meeting  their 
needs  with  the  goods  which  you  have  received  is  by  no 
means  the  least.  Unhappily  there  are  in  the  crowd  of 
beggars  which  pour  into  Geneva  from  all  Christendom 
some  who  feign  various  diseases,  and  others  who  claim  to 
be  without  resources  when  they  are  not.  They  carry  with 
them  the  seeds  of  contagious  diseases. 

"  Our  intention  is  not  to  turn  people   from   giving 


296  SOCIAL  WORK 

alms.  But  it  is  not  enough  simply  to  do  this  good  deed ;  it 
must  be  done  advisedly  (a  propos). 

"  This  multitude  of  the  poor  and  their  frequent  con- 
course must  be  restrained  in  order  that  no  harm  may  result. 
We  exhort  everyboody  to  practise  a  discrete  piety,  and  we 
order  that  none  of  the  indigent  who  encumber  the  city, 
whether  really  unfortunate  or  rogues,  shall  receive  any 
hospitality  ^except  in  one  of  the  seven  hospitals  of  Geneva. 
We  forbid  any  citizen  to  take  them  in.  We  charge  all  the 
rectors  and  governors  of  these  asylums,  under  penalty  of 
excommunication  and  fine  of  sixty  shillings,  to  see  to  it 
that  these  false  poor  who  present  themselves  do  not  hide 
any  evil  practises  under  the  appearance  of  poverty  and 
misery.  The  really  needy  must  be  cared  for  with  mercy. 

"  The  rectors  have  the  duty  of  informing  the  various 
civil  authorities  of  mendicants  who  lead  a  disreputable 
life,  especially  if  they  are  ribald  fellows,  gamblers,  spies 
or  sturdy  rogues." 

In  the  reform  measures  introduced  by  the  city  council 
in  1525,  at  Zurich,  under  the  advice  of  Zwingli  we  trace 
the  influence  both  of  the  new  ecclesiastical  movement  and 
of  the  tendency  of  the  civil  governments  to  extend  their 
functions.  Every  kind  of  begging  was  strictly  prohibited. 
Poor  strangers  might  pass  through  the  town,  ^but  they 
must  nowhere  beg.  They  would  be  given  a  bowl  of  soup 
and  a  piece  of  bread,  and  must  then  pass  on.  Only  the  sick 
and  enfeebled  should  receive  permanent  support,  either  in 
special  institutions  or  by  food  given  in  their  own  homes, 
and  their  cases  should  be  investigated  by  the  pastor  and  a 
pious  layman. 

So  also  in  the  regulation  of  a  "  common  chest  "  which 
was  drawn  up  by  Luther  in  1523,  it  was  set  forth  that 
"  begging"  is  to  be  rigidly  prohibited.  All  who  are  not  old 
and  weak  shall  work.  No  beggars  are  to  be  permitted 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS  297 

to  stay  who  do  not  belong  to  the  parish."  This  seems  to 
have  influenced  many  of  the  German  cities.  Augsburg  had 
already  begun  with  the  prohibition  of  street  begging.  It 
was  followed  by  Nurnberg  and  Breslau  in  1523,  Ratisbon 
and  Magdeburg  in  1524. 

The  people  of  Southampton,  England,  hit  upon  the 
novel  device  of  employing  the  barbers  to  frighten  away 
the  beggars,  and  in  1527  paid  four  pence  to  four  barbers 
"  for  cuttyng  of  vacabundes  here  short." 

In  full  accord  with  their  economic  exclusiveness,  most 
of  the  towns  not  only  sought  to  be  rid  of  vagabonds  from 
other  places,  but  accorded  special  privileges  to  their  own 
citizens.  In  some  cases  these  took  the  form  of  licensing 
certain  people  to  beg.  Thus  Southampton  had,  in  1529, 
as  many  as  sixty-four  liveries  for  its  beggars.  About 
1540  a  "comptroller"  or  "master  of  beggars"  is  men- 
tioned with  a  silver  gilt  badge  instead  of  a  tin  one,  and  a 
small  annual  fee.  That  a  similar  arrangement  existed  in 
York  appears  in  an  ordinance  in  1583  that  "from  hence- 
forth no  head  beggars  shall  be  chosen,"  and  that  "  from 
Christmas  the  four  present  head  beggars  shall  not  have 
any  wages  or  clothing  of  the  common  chamber,  but  only 
their  weekly  stipends  gathered  of  the  many  assistants  for 
the  relief  of  the  poor." 

Certain  charitable  establishments  in  Lille  had  resi- 
dents who  from  time  immemorial  had  enjoyed  the  right  to 
beg  within  the  city  limits.  They  were  required  to  wear  on 
their  breast  a  white  cross  "  two  fingers  wide  and  a  foot 
long."  This  regulation  was  renewed  by  the  echevins  or 
aldermen  as  late  as  1411. 

Similar  to  the  repression  of  begging  was  the  legisla- 
tion directed  toward  the  control  of  lepers.  The  Assizes  of 
London  had  proclaimed,  in  1276,  that  "  no  leper  shall  be 
in  the  city,  nor  come  and  make  any  stay  there."  The 


298  SOCIAL  WORK 

"Customs  of  Bristol,"  written  down  by  the  recorder  in 
1344  declare  "  that  no  leper  reside  within  the  precincts  of 
the  town."  So  far  we  have  mere  exclusion,  without 
definite  efforts  to  provide,  for  the  lepers.  But  that 
constructive  philanthropy  was  not  always  lacking  is 
indicated  by  the  measures  of  the  burgesses  of  Berwick-on- 
Tweed.  "  No  leper  shall  come  within  the  gates  of  the 
borough;  and  if  one  gets  in  by  chance,  the  sergeant  shall 
put  him  out  at  once.  If  one  wilfully  forces  his  way  in,  his 
clothes  shall  be  taken  off  him  and  burnt,  and  he  shall  be 
turned  out  naked.  For  we  have  aready  taken  care  that  a 
proper  place  for  lepers  shall  be  kept  up  outside  the  town, 
and  that  alms  shall  be  there  given  to  them."  Similar  regula- 
tions were  adopted  by  the  various  towns  on  the  Continent. 

POSITIVE  RELIEF  MEASURES 
PROVISION   OF  GRAIN   DURING  FAMINE 

A  different  sort  of  activity  for  the  control  of  poverty 
and  misery  was  the  supplying  of  grain  in  time  of  famine. 
Adam  Bamme,  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in  1391,  "in  a 
great  dearth  procured  corn  from  parts  beyond  the  seas  to 
be  brought  hither  in  such  abundance  as  sufBced  to  serve 
the  city  and  the  counties  near  adjoining;  to  the  furtherance 
of  which  good  work  he  took  out  of  the  orphans'  chest  in 
the  guildhall  two  thousand  marks  to  buy  the  said  corn, 
and  each  alderman  laid  out  twenty  pounds  to  the  like 
purpose."  This  same  expedient  was  adopted  again  in 
London  in  1438  by  the  mayor  of  that  time,  Sir  Stephen 
Brown,  who  "  charitably  relieved  the  oldest  of  poor 
citizens  by  sending  ships  at  his  own  expense  to  Danzig, 
which  returned:  laden  with  rye,  and  which  seasonable 
supply  soon  sank  grain  to  reasonable  rates."  Somewhat 
later,  an  ex-mayor  built  a  municipal  granary,  which  was 
maintained  by  voluntary  contributions.  Until  nearly  the 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS  299 

middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  purchases  seem  to  have 
been  made  only  in  years  of  exceptional  dearness.  But  in 
1 565  annual  purchases  were  ordered.  A  similar  provision 
was  made  in  many  other  English  towns. 

This  same  step  was  taken  by  all  the  more  populous 
towns  of  Germany ;  for  example,  by  Niirnberg,  Augsburg, 
Breslau,  Strassburg  and  Frankfurt.  The  emperor, 
Charles  V,  when  he  visited  Niirnberg  in  1540,  is  said  to 
have  tasted  bread  made  of  wheat  which  had  been  preserved 
in  the  municipal  granary  one  hundred  and  eighteen  years. 

TAKING  OVER  HOSPITALS 

The  manner  in  which  the  gilds  paved  the  way  for 
municipal  charities  appears  in  the  taking  over  by  the 
towns  of  the  administration  of  hospitals  and  almshouses. 
Sometimes  this  appears  to  have  been  at  the  invitation  of 
the  management  and  sometimes  it  was  done  more  or 
less  arbitrarily. 

One  of  the  first  steps  toward  municipal  control  of 
charities  was  the  making  burgesses  trustees  of  private 
hospitals.  This  happened  in  Exeter,  Northampton,  Not- 
tingham, Wallingford,  Rochester,  Croydon  and  other 
towns  in  England. 

"At  Bridgeport  (1265)  the  town  administered  the 
endowment  of  the  manorial  lord;  the  provosts  conducted  a 
yearly  investigation  whether  the  brethren  and  lepers  were 
well  treated  and  the  chaplains  lived  honestly.  In  London 
there  were  officials  who  daily  inspected  the  lazar  houses ; 
these  '  overseers '  and  '  foremen  '  seem  to  have  been  busy 
citizens  who  undertook  this  work  on  behalf  of  the 
corporation.  ( 1 389  ) ." 

At  Sandwich  the  burgesses  controlled  the  two  hospitals 
dedicated  respectively  to  St.  Bartholomew  and  St.  John. 
Both  were  virtually  almshouses  providing  for  a  certain 


300  SOCIAL  WORK 

number  of  old  people.  The  mayor  and  jurats  of 
Sandwich  not  only  appointed  the  governors  of  St. 
Bartholomew's  but  audited  the  accounts,  controlled  the 
management  and  appointed  new  recipients  of  the  charity. 
The  whole  was  connected  with  an  annual  festal  procession 
to  the  hospital  in  which  many  of  the  townsfolk  took  part. 

"At  Scarborough  Henry  de  Bulmer  gave  a  site  for  St. 
Thomas'  hospital  which  was  furnished  and  endowed  by 
the  burgesses.  (The  burgesses  of  Scarborough  are  said 
to  have  founded  and  maintained  another  hospital,  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Nicholas,  and  in  which  both  poor  men  and 
women  were  maintained. )  At  Chester  the  town  gave  land 
on  condition  that  certain  almshouses  were  built,  and 
Ipswich  in  1469  granted  the  profits  of  St.  James'  fair  to 
the  lazars." 

The  same  process  went  on  in  France,  Italy  and  Ger- 
many. The  governors  of  the  Hospital  of  Mirecourt  were 
named  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  community  in  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  Hospital  of  St.  Eleuthere,  at 
Tournai,  was  placed  under  the  direction  of  a  master 
appointed  by  the  City  Council.  At  Lille  the  magistrate 
chose  the  overseers  of  certain  charitable  institutions  and 
the  aldermen  at  Ypres  had  almost  complete  power  over  the 
various  asylums. 

On  the  Continent  we  find  evidence  not  only  of  the 
municipalities  taking  over  hospitals  and  almshouses  but 
actually  founding  them.  Thus  Venice  in  1474  established 
an  institution  known  as  the  "  Spedale  di  Messer  Gesu 
Christo  "  to  celebrate  a  victory  over  the  Turks.  As  early 
as  the  twelfth  century  the  Asylum  of  Saints  Peter  and 
Paul  devoted  to  the  care  of  Pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Land, 
was  ruled  by  a  committee  of  the  Council  of  Ten  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Doge.  The  principal  hospital  of 
Cremona,  Italy,  was  from  its  founding  under  the  direction 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS  301 

of  six  citizens,  known  as  Regents.  The  City  Council  of 
Augsburg  named  three  curators  for  the  Hospital  of  St. 
James  in  the  fourteenth  century. 

In  addition  to  taking  over  more  or  less  complete  control 
of  existing  institutions,  the  cities  undertook  the  manage- 
ment of  new  institutions,  founded  by  philanthropic  citizens. 
Thus  a  hospital  in  La  Rochelle  was,  by  the  will  of  its 
founder,  managed  by  a  layman,  who  was  appointed  by  a 
council  composed  of  the  mayor  and  ten  prud-hommes. 
Two  brothers  established  a  charitable  institution  at 
Romans.  They  provided  that  it  should  be  under  the  direc- 
tion of  their  heirs,  but  that  at  the  extinction  of  their 
family  it  should  be  taken  in  charge  by  two  consuls  of  the 
city.  A  citizen  of  Tournai  and  his  wife  founded  the 
Asylum  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  in  1493,  and  administered 
it  themselves.  Their  son  was  to  take  their  place,  and 
after  him  the  control  passed  to  the  provost  and  mayor. 
In  Ypres,  Margarite  Voet  managed  a  hospital  during  her 
life,  and  at  her  death  left  it  in  charge  of  the  aldermen. 

A  case  of  forceable  assumption  of  the  responsibility 
for  hospitals  occurred  in  Venice  in  1450  when  the  Duke 
Alexander  de  Medici  insisted  that  the  welfare  of  the  Re- 
public required  that  important  establishments  like  Lo 
Spedale  Di  Santa  Maria  Nuova  should  be  taken  over 
by  the  state.  He  therefore  appointed  certain  noblemen  as 
inspectors  to  investigate  the  conduct  of  these  institutions 
and  audit  their  accounts. 

OUTDOOR  RELIEF 

Along  with  hospital  care  the  towns  came  also  to  pro- 
vide for  various  sorts  of  outrelief .  Sometimes  it  was  given 
for  a  definite  purpose  and  sometimes  it  was  the  same  old 
indiscriminate  almsgiving.  Progress  is  marked  by  increase 
in  the  former,  and  gradual  elimination  of  the  latter. 


302  SOCIAL  WORK 

At  Lydd  sums  were  given  for  "  Goderynges 
dowghetyr,  pour  mayde,  for  hosyne,  shoys  and  other 
thyngses."  On  several  occasions  payments  were  made  for 
her  clothes  and  keep.  In  1482-3,  35.  4d.  was  paid  to 
Thomas  Maykyne  "  to  kepe  Goderyng's  doughtyr,"  and  in 
1485  there  is  another  entry  of  the  same  kind:  "Paid 
for  a  kertylcloth  for  Herry  Goderyng's  doughtyr  and  for 
making  thereof,  35.  id."  In  this  town,  also,  gifts  of  corn 
were  regularly  distributed  at  Easter  and  Christmas  from 
1439  onwards. 

As  early  as  the  fourteenth  century  in  Southampton 
forfeits  and  alms  were  awarded  to  the  poor.  In  'the 
fifteenth  century  "the  towyns  almys  were  settled  on  a 
plan  "  and  lists  were  kept  of  the  weekly  payments.  The 
steward's  book  of  1441  states  that  the  town  gave  weekly 
to  the  poor  4  pounds  2s.  id.,  which  according  to  the  value 
of  money  at  that  time  might  have  furnished  relief  for 
about  a  hundred  and  fifty  people. 

In  France  the  communes  did  rather  little  for  the  poor 
before  the  sixteenth  century.  Nevertheless,  we  find 
accounts  of  some  allowances  to  the  poor  and  some  endow- 
ments administered  by  the  municipalities.  Thus  at 
Limoges  a  charitable  fund  provided  from  very  old  ground 
rents  was  handled  by  the  city.  Moreover,  the  consuls  of 
Limoges  had  the  right  to  maintain  a  charity  box  or  treas- 
ury which  was  kept  by  voluntary  gifts,  legacies  and  even 
a  tax  upon  the  citizens.  At  Niort  distributions  of  bread  on 
the  third  of  May,  known  as  charite  de  la  blee,  were  admin- 
istered by  the  Mayor  and  the  magistrates  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  The  magistrates  of  Douai  instituted  a  community 
alms  in  1317,  and  named  five  citizens  to  receive  and  dis- 
tribute gifts  for  the  unfortunate.  Municipal  outrelief 
also  appears  in  Italy.  Thus  the  city  officials  of  Genoa  in 
1413  appointed  some  "  upright  citizens,"  known  as 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS  303 

officiates  misericordiae,  on  whom  they  laid  the  duty 
of  appealing  for  and  distributing  offerings  for 
the  indigent. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  systems  of 
municipal  charities  developed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
modern  era  was  that  established  at  Ypres,  in  Flanders, 
about  1525,  under  the  influence  of  a  Spaniard,  Juan  Louis 
Vives.  It  seems  that  the  magistrates  of  Bruges  had 
applied  to  Vives  for  advice  about  the  care  of  their  poor. 
In  response  he  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  Relief  of  the  Poor 
(de  subventione  pauperum).  He  began  by  impressing  the 
public  authorities  that  it  was  their  duty  to  see  that  the 
destitute  were  properly  provided  for.  He  then  proceeded 
to  sketch  a  new  poor  law,  taking  as  its  basis  a  division  of 
the  destitute  into  three  classes:  (i)  those  sheltered  in 
hospitals  and  almshouses;  (2)  homeless  beggars  and  (3) 
the  honest  and  shame- faced  poor  abiding  in  their  own 
houses.  He  went  on  to  insist  on  the  importance  of  an 
accurate  census  of  the  needy.  He  insisted  upon  two 
guiding  principles ;  all  who  were  able  should  be  counseled 
to  work,  and  begging  should  be  absolutely  forbidden.  For 
those  who  were  unable  to  work  a  refuge  should  be  pro- 
vided in  hospitals  and  almshouses. 

Whether  Bruges  adopted  Vives'  scheme  or  not,  we  are 
not  told,  but  the  city  of  Ypres  did  undertake  to  put  the 
plan  into  operation.  Begging  was  absolutely  forbidden 
and  efforts  were  made  to  find  work  for  all  who  were 
capable  of  it.  The  administration  of  relief  was  centralized 
and  placed  under  four  superintendents  who  were  assisted 
in  each  parish  by  four  persons  specially  assigned  to  this 
work.  A  census  of  the  destitute  was  taken  and  an  effort 
made  to  reform  the  hospitals.  For  financial  support,  Vives' 
suggestion  was  followed  and  the  city  depended  on  volun- 


304  SOCIAL  WORK 

tary     donations,     stimulated    by    the    exhortations     of 
the  clergy. 

News  of  this  innovation  seems  to  have  spread  quite 
rapidly,  and  applications  began  to  pour  in  upon  the  Ypres 
authorities  for  copies  of  their  regulations.  Vives'  little 
book  was  soon  translated  into  Spanish,  Italian  and 
French.  However,  not  everyone  received  it  favorably. 
The  four  mendicant  orders  and  some  of  the  clergy  attacked 
the  rules  adopted  by  Ypres  on  the  ground  that  they  inter- 
fered with  the  practise  of  the  Christian  virtue  of  charity. 
In  1531  a  copy  of  the  rules  was  sent  to  the  Sorbonne  for 
judgment,  and  while  the  decision  was  mainly  on  the  side 
of  the  reform,  a  proviso  was  added  which  encouraged 
private  almsgiving,  and  thus  weakened  the  whole  thing. 
Charles  V  secured  a  copy  of  the  rules  and  tried  to  put 
them  into  effect  in  Spain,  but  his  power  was  inadequate 
to  enforce  the  regulation.  Moreover,  he  authorized  the 
local  officials  to  give  a  selected  number  of  the  impotent 
poor  badges  authorizing  them  to  beg. 

LIMITATIONS  OF  MUNICIPAL  CHARITIES 

We  have  seen  that  the  charities  of  the  manor,  the 
parish  and  the  gild  grew  out  of  simple  neighborhood 
assistance  and  never  entirely  expanded  beyond  a  form  of 
mutual  aid.  The  growth  of  the  towns  provided  a  frame- 
work within  which  social  relations  could  be  extended,  and 
which  consequently  provided  relief  for  a  more  hetero- 
geneous lot  of  needy  folk.  But  the  towns,  like  the  smaller 
groups,  were  pretty  exclusive  during  the  middle  ages. 

In  her  account  of  medieval  hospitals  in  England  Miss 
Gay  tells  us  that  "  Freemen  had  an  advantage,  if  not  a 
monopoly,  when  seeking  entrance  into  houses  under 


THE  MEDIEVAL  TOWNS  305 

municipal  supervision.  The  '  Customals '  of  Rye  and 
Winchelsea  show  that  men  and  women,  '  who  have  been  in 
good  love  and  fame  all  their  time,  and  have  neither  goods 
nor  chattels  whereof  to  live,'  were  received  without  pay- 
ment into  the  hospitals  of  the  town.  Bubwith's  almshouse, 
Wells,  was  to  receive  men  so  poor  that  they  could  not  live 
except  by  begging,  and  so  decrepit  that  they  were  unable 
to  beg  from  door  to  door.  Reduced  burgesses  were 
assigned  '  the  more  honorable  places  and  beds.'  At  St. 
Ursula's,  Chester,  candidates  were  preferred  who  had  been 
one  of  the  '  twenty-four,'  or  the  widows  of  aldermen  and 

common  councilmen St.  John's  Bedford,  was 

intended  only  for  townsmen;  all  such  applying  to  the 
master  for  relief  were  to  be  received;  but  all '  poore  folkes 
dwelling  without  the  same  town  to  be  expulsed  and  put 

out/ Davy  of  Croydon  put  his  almshouse  under 

the  vicar  and  other  townsmen,  answerable  ultimately  to 
the  Mercers'  company,  and  provided  that  his  pensioners 
should  be  '  householders  or  trewe  labourers '  from  within 
four  miles,  preference  being  given  to  residents  of  long 
standing,  if  of  good  character  and  destitute." 

This  exclusiveness  rested  upon  a  limitation  which  is 
peculiar  to  any  local  body.  No  town  could  accept  the  task 
of  caring  for  all  needy  persons  who  happened  within  its 
borders.  It  would  soon  be  overrun  by  applicants  for  help. 
So  long  as  the  population  was  attached  to  the  soil,  as 
was  usual  in  the  early  middle  ages,  the  local  community  was 
able  to  handle  the  situation.  But  with  the  increasing 
mobility  of  the  population  which  went  hand  in  hand  with 
the  growth  of  the  towns,  it  became  more  and  more  neces- 
sary that  the  state  should  take  some  action,  and  we  have 
already  seen  how  the  English  Poor  Law  developed  out  of 
just  this  situation. 

20 


306  SOCIAL  WORK 

SUGGESTED  READINGS 

Ashley,  W.  J. :  An  Introduction  to  English  Economic  History.  Lon- 
don :  Longmans  Green,  1893,  2  vols. 

Abram,  A. :  Social  England  in  the  Fifteenth  Century.  London  :  Rout- 
ledge,  1909. 

Green,  Mrs.  J.  R. :  Town  Life  in  the  Fifteenth  Century.  London : 
Mac  mil  Ian,  1894. 

von  Hegel,  Karl :  Die  Entstehung  des  deutschen  Stddtewesens.  Leip- 
zig: Hirzel,  1898. 

von  Hegel,  Karl:  Geschichte  der  Stddteverfassung  von  Italien  seit 
der  Zeit  der  romischen  Herrschaft  bis  zum  Ausgang  des  zwblf- 
ten  Jahrhunderts.  Leipzig:  Weidmann,  1847. 

Unwin,  Geo. :  Industrial  Organisation  in  the  Sixteenth  and  Seven- 
teenth Centuries.  Oxford:  Clarendon  Press,  1004. 

Vives,  Juan  Louis:  De  Subventione  Pauperum.  Translation  pub- 
lished by  the  New  York  School  of  Social  Work. 

English  Towns  and  Gilds.  University  of  Pennsylvania  Translations 
and  Reprints.  Vol.  2,  No.  I. 

Medieval  Towns;  a  series  of  books  published  by  J.  M.  Dent  &  Co., 
London,  including  the  stories  of  Avignon,  Bruges,  Canterbury, 
Chartres,  Dublin,  Edinburgh,  Florence,  Lucca,  Niirnberg,  Prague, 
Seville,  Toledo  and  others.  Various  authors. 

See  also  readings  for  Chapter  XVII. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 

WE  have  about  reached  the  end  of  our  story.  Beginning 
with  the  social  work  as  we  see  it  to-day,  we  have  attempted 
to  trace  its  origins  back  through  the  nineteenth  century 
humanitarianism  and  the  public  relief  systems,  ecclesiasti- 
cal charities  and  the  mutual  aid  of  medieval  groups.  We 
have  endeavored  to  find  the  causes  for  the  changing  forms 
of  social  work,  together  with  the  achievements  and  the 
mistakes  of  each  age. 

Social  work  of  the  present  seems  to  be  in  the  process 
of  becoming  a  profession,  resting  more  and  more  on  a 
scientific  basis,  giving  increased  attention  to  preventive 
and  constructive  work,  and  gradually  welding  scattered 
activities  into  a  coherent  system  of  public  service.  From 
the  middle  class  humanitarians  of  the  nineteenth  century  it 
has  received  financial  backing  for  making  experiments; 
it  has  learned  principles  of  organization  and  administra- 
tion ;  it  has  acquired  techniques  for  dealing  with  a  variety 
of  practical  problems.  From  the  development  of  the 
English  Poor  Law  it  has  inherited  the  idea  of  national 
responsibility  for  the  problems  of  poverty  and  the  notion 
that  charity  as  such  will  never  solve  them.  The  teachings 
of  the  Church,  exemplified  in  its  myriads  of  charities, 
have  given  the  greatest  single  stimulus  to  attend  to  the 
needs  of  one's  fellow  men.  The  mutual  aid  of  simple 
neighborhood  groups  in  the  middle  ages  is  a  standing 
challenge  to  make  social  work  more  personal  and  human. 

But  the  mutual  aid  of  the  medieval  manor  and  gild 

307 


3o8  SOCIAL  WORK 

rested  upon  isolation  and  fixity,  both  geographical 
and  social.  Its  relative  sufficiency  was  due  to  the  absence  of 
specialized  occupations.  It  could  never  meet  the  needs 
of  a  mobile  population  nor  take  the  place  of  modern  pro- 
fessional service.  The  Church's  doctrine  of  the  religious 
merit  of  almsgiving  was  fundamentally  selfish  and  drew 
attention  away  from  the  needs  of  the  unfortunate  to  the 
spiritual  hopes  of  the  favored.  It  dealt  almost  exclusively 
with  the  suffering  that  was  obvious  and  made  little  effort 
to  find  and  eliminate  the  causes.  The  public  relief  systems 
have  tended  to  fall  into  routine  and  formality,  due  very 
often  to  the  injection  of  partisan  politics.  The  nineteenth 
century  humanitarianism  has  been  a  curious  mixture 
of  maudlin  sentimentality,  business  methods  and  efforts  to 
keep  the  laboring  people  contented  with  their  lot.  On  the 
whole,  it  has  stood  for  patronage  rather  than  justice, 
for  "  charity  "  rather  than  democracy.  Social  work  of  the 
twentieth  century  has  inherited  all  these  handicaps  along 
with  the  positive  achievements  of  the  past. 

A  BASIS  OF   INTERPRETATION 

Rather  than  merely  repeat  what  has  gone  before,  we 
are  going  to  undertake  an  interpretation,  using  the  lan- 
guage of  the  social  psychologists,  particularly  Professor 
Mead  and  Professor  Cooley.  The  following  summary  of 
this  point  of  view  may  at  first  seem  to  be  an  unwarranted 
digression,  but  its  pertinence  will  presently  appear. 

We  have  been  studying  the  sort  of  behavior  that  is 
usually  described  as  social  work,  philanthropy,  charity, 
welfare  work,  etc.  The  acts  involved  in  solving  problems 
of  social  and  economic  maladjustment  offer  no  evidence  of 
being  fundamentally  different  from  other  activities  of 
normal  human  beings.  We  shall  therefore  make  our 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  309 

approach  through  a  (we  hope  not  very  inaccurate)  descrip- 
tion of  any  act. 

The  act,  as  such,  involves  stimulation  and  response. 
But  that  is  not  all.  There  is  something  in  us  which  pre- 
disposes us  to  respond  to  certain  stimuli  at  certain  times. 
For  example,  the  sight  of  food  does  not  of  itself  create 
the  response  involved  in  going  after  it  and  eating  it.  But 
if  we  are  hungry,  we  are  predisposed  to  see  food  objects 
and  in  a  way  prepared  to  perform  the  movements  neces- 
sary to  secure  them.  To  use  the  words  of  some  of  the 
psychologists,  visual,  olfactory  and  other  sense  imagery 
find  us  sensitive  to  this  particular  kind  of  stimulus  and 
motor  imagery  facilitates  the  response. 

But  there  is  something  back  of  the  fact  of  being 
hungry.  Our  basic  predispositions  we  call  instincts. 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  debate  about  the  nature  of  instincts, 
but  whatever  they  are,  they  make  possible  the  experiences 
characteristic  of  our  species.  And  among  our  various 
actions  the  most  successful  ones  tend  to  be  selected  and 
become  established  more  or  less  permanently  as  habits. 
When  any  activity  becomes  habitual  we  cease  to  notice  it, 
we  say  that  it  takes  care  of  itself.  But  if  it  should  be  dis- 
turbed, we  would  have  to  give  it  our  attention.  If  the 
new  factors  persist,  we  have  to  reorganize  our  habit. 

Now  it  is  the  interference  with  OUT  instinctive, 
habitual  or  reflex  activities  that  creates  our  problems  and 
makes  us  think.  Because  the  situation  is  new,  we  are  at 
a  loss  as  to  how  to  proceed.  We  start  to  do  this,  that  and 
the  other  thing,  that  seems  as  though  it  might  do.  But 
these  conflicting  tendencies  may  appear  simultaneously  or 
in  such  rapid  succession  as  to  inhibit  each  other  and  keep  us 
for  the  moment  from  doing  anything.  It  is  this  check- 
ing of  our  response  that  compels  and  makes  possible 
reflective  thinking. 


310  SOCIAL  WORK 

So  far  as  physical  objects  are  concerned,  we  can 
usually  go  ahead  without  thinking.  We  are  not  aware  of 
the  various  processes  involved  in  walking,  unless  some- 
thing unusual  occurs.  The  reason  for  this  is  the  fact  that 
physical  objects  concerned  in  our  walking  are  relatively 
stable;  ordinarily  they  do  not  change  in  any  way  that 
affects  our  conduct.  But  social  objects  are  continually 
changing.  People  do  not  stay  put,  nor  can  we  always 
count  on  their  behaving  in  definite  fixed  ways.  Moreover, 
they  change  in  response  to  what  we  do.  We  cannot  as 
social  scientists  study  people  in  the  way  that  biologists 
study  bugs.  The  insect  can  be  examined  without  being 
aware  of  the  presence  of  the  student.  But  the  man  changes 
while  the  investigation  is  going  on,  and  because  it  is 
going  on. 

Hence  it  seems  fair  to  make  a  distinction  between 
what  we  may  call  physical. acts  and  social  acts.  When  two 
animals  or  persons  approach  each  other,  each  is  on  the 
alert  for  signs  of  what  the  other  is  going  to  do.  Suppose 
that  A's  attitude  indicates  that  he  is  dangerous.  B  may 
respond  with  a  show  of  fight  or  with  flight.  Whichever 
it  is,  A's  attitude  toward  B  will  change,  because  B  himself 
has  changed ;  whereupon  B  will  make  a  different  response 
to  the  altered  A,  and  so  the  parrying  will  go  on.  One  of 
the  most  characteristic  examples  of  this,  which  Professor 
Mead  calls  a  "conversation  of  gestures,"  is  the  box- 
ing match. 

In  social  conduct,  as  we  have  described  it,  attention  may 
be  centered  upon  the  incipient  acts  of  the  other,  without 
our  being  definitely  aware  of  their  significance.  Con- 
sciousness of  meaning  seems  to  come  only  from  awareness 
of  our  own  response.  Now  such  gestures  as  are  involved  in 
bodily  attitudes  or  expressions  of  the  countenance  we  are 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  311 

not  ordinarily  aware  of  in  ourselves.  But  we  are  aware 
of  pantomimic  and  especially  of  "  vocal  gestures."  If 
we  shake  our  fist,  we  see  ourselves  do  it;  if  we  speak,  we 
hear  ourselves.  Thus  we  become  aware  of  what  we 
are  doing. 

In  using  gestures  or  words  and  in  being  aware  of  them 
we  in  a  sense  respond  to  them.  Being  conscious  of  what 
we  are  doing  or  saying  to  some  one  else,  we  are  in  the 
position  of  the  other  person  watching  or  listening  to 
us.  We  are  putting  ourselves  in  his  place.  We  are  aware 
of  the  effect  of  OUT  act  upon  him,  and  see  ourselves  from 
his  point  of  view.  It  is  thus  that  we  "  see  ourselves  as 
others  see  us." 

Of  course,  the  extent  to  which  we  can  really  take  the 
role  of  another  depends  upon  the  extent  to  which  there  are 
similar  or  identical  impulses  in  both  parties.  But  appar- 
ently there  are  a  good  many  impulses  common  to  most 
human  beings.  Hence  it  seems  to  be  through  the  play 
back  and  forth,  the  parrying,  the  "  conversation  of 
gestures,"  that  we  acquire  the  imagery  whereby  we  can 
assume  the  roles  which  others  are  taking  or  have  taken  in 
the  past.  We  are  not  confined  to  the  present,  for  we  have 
something  that  we  call  memory. 

But  memory  is  not  all.  We  not  only  recall  past 
experiences,  but  carry  the  process  farther,  on  the  basis  of 
present  stimulations,  and  wonder  how  the  other  person 
would  act  or  what  he  would  say  under  given  conditions. 
We  find  ourselves  carrying  on  an  imaginary  conversation, 
taking  now  the  part  associated  with  "  I  "  and  now  the  part 
of  the  other,  (imaginatively)  standing  in  his  shoes, 
assuming  his  attitude  and  speaking  for  him. 

It  seems  to  be  in  some  such  manner  as  this  that  we 


312  SOCIAL  WORK 

get  acquainted  with  people,  and,  moreover,  that  we  get 
acquainted  with  ourselves;  that  is,  become  self-conscious. 
It  is  in  taking  the  role  of  another  that  we  set  ourselves  up 
as  an  object.  It  is  thus  that  we  enter  into  the  life  of 
our  community.  Now  there  is  nothing  mysterious  or 
esoteric  about  this.  We  have  only  to  watch  a  child  at 
his  play  to  hea'r  him  carrying  on  imaginary  conversations, 
taking  now  one  part  and  now  another,  playing  a  variety 
of  parts. 

In  what  the  social  psychologists  call  a  "  primary 
group,"  every  member  enters  more  or  less  completely  into 
the  life  of  every  other  member.  Having  constant  dealings 
with  one  another  in  all  the  activities  of  life,  they  acquire 
the  imagery  to  assume  each  other's  roles.  Tkey  can  put 
themselves  into  each  other's  places,  and  this  makes  pos- 
sible real  sympathy.  That  does  not  mean  that  all  the 
members  of  the  group  must  be  alike.  In  fact  the  opposite 
seems  to  be  nearer  the  truth,  for  if  all  individuals  were 
alike,  the  distinction  between  me  and  thee  might  never 
come  to  consciousness.  On  the  other  hand,  if  differences 
were  too  great,  these  intimate  relations  would  be  impos- 
sible. Within  the  primary  group  differences  are  sufficient 
to  attract  attention,  but  not  so  great  as  to  prevent 
mutual  understanding. 

It  is  in  these  primary  groups  where  everybody  knows 
everybody  else  intimately  that  "  social  control  "  develops. 
Putting  himself  now  in  the  place  of  this  one,  now  of  that 
one,  and  finding  everywhere  an  essential  agreement  of 
attitude  toward  himself,  he  is  very  likely  to  do  and  become 
that  which  is  expected  of  him.  Primitive  society,  in  par- 
ticular, seems  to  be  marked  by  the  fixity  of  belief  and 
custom,  so  that  there  is  little  opportunity  for  the  exercise 
of  individual  initiative.  One  striking  out  along  a  new  line 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  313 

would  promptly  feel  the  censure  of  the  entire  group,  and 
being  unsupported  in  his  opposition  would  normally 
return  to  the  established  ways.  If  he  could  appeal  to 
some  outsider  for  justification  and  support  he  might 
become  an  innovator,  but  the  exclusiveness  and  isolation 
of  the  primitive  group  prevented  this.  The  people  whose 
opinion  and  attitude  one  regarded  were  none  others  than 
the  people  who  made  up  his  group. 

What  then  of  the  outsider,  the  barbarian,  the  gentile, 
the  foreigner,  the  "  unwashed?"  In  the  first  instance  the 
primary  group  has  no  dealings  with  him  except  as  an 
enemy.  He  is  different.  He  has  been  brought  up  in  a 
different  environment,  and  has  formed  different  habits. 
The  members  of  our  group  have  not  the  imagery  with 
which  to  put  themselves  in  his  place.  Hence  impulses 
of  fear  or  hostility  are  not  inhibited  by  other  impulses,  as 
within  the  group.  Social  control  is  removed,  and  action 
is  immediate  and  hostile.  This  warlike  attitude  is 
strengthened  and  perpetuated  by  perception  of  the  fact 
that  the  other  members  of  our  group  are  acting  in  a 
similar  manner.  We  find  self -approval  in  group  approval. 
We  identify  ourselves  with  the  group,  and  thereby  greatly 
enhance  our  feeling  of  self-importance.  This  enlarged 
self- feeling  together  with  "  taking  off  the  lid  "  produces 
an  exhilaration  which  carries  this  hostility  along  in  an 
invincible  manner. 

How  then  does  a  group  ever  enlarge  itself?  How  do 
we  ever  come  to  have  any  attitude  other  than  unrestrained 
hostility  toward  the  outsider.  The  first  means  seems  to 
have  been  created  by  the  institution  of  slavery,  through 
a  combination  of  the  ideas  and  impulses  connected  with 
property  and  belligerency.  In  the  primitive  group  prop- 
erty did  not  involve  exclusiveness  except  in  such  articles  as 


3  H  SOCIAL  WORK 

the  spear  or  club;  nearly  everything  was  the  property  of  the 
group.  Or,  perhaps  we  should  say,  there  was  property 
only  in  things  under  immediate  personal  control  (depend- 
ing upon  the  definition  of  property).  But  when  a 
community  developed  an  economic  process  (herding  of 
flocks  or  crude  agriculture)  in  which  there  was  a  possible 
function  for  a  slave,  they  stopped  killing  all  their  enemies 
and  put  some  of  them  to  work.  Thus  the  limited  ex- 
clusiveness  involved  in  property  was  extended  from 
weapons  to  human  beings,  and  the  hostile  attitude  was 
inhibited  by  economic  impulses. 

A  new  relationship  had  been  brought  into  existence. 
By  means  of  it  the  group  could  be  enlarged  indefinitely 
and  anyone  could  be  brought  in.  But  the  slave  was  not 
a  full  member  of  the  group.  The  attitude  of  hostility  had 
been  mitigated,  not  abolished.  The  warlike  and  the 
acquisitive  impulses  had  combined  to  produce  what  we  call 
"  an  abstract  relation."  It  was  abstract  because  one 
aspect  of  life  had  been  taken  out  of  its  setting,  abstracted 
from  all  the  rest.  Master  and  slave  did  not  have  to  con- 
sider any  except  the  property  relation.  That  the  slave  was 
a  husband,  father,  brother,  neighbor,  etc.,  meant  nothing 
at  all  to  his  master.  To  the  slave  the  master  was  merely  a 
wielder  of  the  whip,  the  one  who  fed  him  and  used  him 
as  a  domestic  animal. 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    SOCIAL    WORK 

All  this  may  seem  a  far  cry  from  the  history  of  social 
work,  but  its  significance  will  presently  appear.  In  the 
middle  ages  nearly  everybody  lived  in  a  small,  isolated, 
exclusive,  self-sufficient  group,  often  at  war  with 
its  neighbors,  but  otherwise  ignoring  the  existence  of  a 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  315 

world  beyond.  Within  the  manor,  parish,  merchant  or 
craft  gild,  or  religious  fraternity,  everybody  knew  every- 
body else,  or  at  least  readily  understood  all  those  with 
whom  he  had  dealings.  The  intimate  personal  relations 
made  these  veritable  primary  groups.  As  we  have 
seen,  there  was  not  always  unity  and  harmony,  but  in  gen- 
eral there  tended  to  be  inner  solidarity.  In  cases  of 
misfortune  due  to  illness,  flood,  fire,  famine,  etc.,  they 
helped  one  another  as  sympathy  directed  and  without 
formality.  But  with  the  increase  in  numbers,  the  division 
into  cliques  and  other  aspects  of  the  break-down  of  con- 
crete personal  relations,  it  became  necessary  to  organize 
definite  means  for  meeting  the  various  exigencies  of  life. 
And  poverty,  disease  and  death  were  regarded  and  treated 
in  the  main  as  group  calamities,  not  as  individ- 
ual misfortunes. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  were  always  individuals  who 
had  lost  their  immediate  connection  with  the  home  com- 
munity. They  went  on  pilgrimages,  ran  away  from  their 
lords,  or  became  traveling  merchants.  These  detached 
individuals  were  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  and  there 
was  a  constant  effort  to  attach  them  to  some  local  group. 
But  during  the  Crusades  their  numbers  became  so 
great  that  this  effort  was  bound  to  be  unsuccessful.  From 
that  time  on  to  the  final  break-up  of  feudalism  the  numbers 
of  pilgrims,  beggars,  thieves,  merchants  and  other  wan- 
derers increased  with  great  rapidity. 

What  then  was  the  attitude  of  those  who  "  stayed 
put  "  toward  the  detached  folk  ?  In  the  first  place,  it  was 
still  one  of  exclusiveness  and  hostility  and  manifested 
itself  in  the  many  attempts  to  repress  begging.  But  the 
numbers  and  the  persistence  of  the  "  vagabonds  "  and 


SOCIAL  WORK 

beggars  were  so  great  that  failure  was  a  foregone  con- 
clusion.    Something  else  had  to  be  done. 

One  of  the  most   interesting   stages  of   the  entire 
history  of  social  work  is  that  in  which  the  aid  given  to 
members  of  primary  groups  was  gradually  extended  to 
outsiders.     How  was  this  done?     What  was  the  tech- 
nique ?    What  was  the  function  which  the  strangers  might 
perform  so  as  to  secure  at  least  partial  admission  to  the 
group  life?     It  was  all  involved  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
religious  merit  of  almsgiving.  By  giving  alms  to  the  poor, 
helpless  and  wandering  folk  the  donors  hoped  to  secure 
eternal  salvation.    Not  only  did  the  beggars  help  to  make 
eternal  bliss  certain  by  accepting  the  gifts  of  respectable 
folk,  they  also  offered  prayers  for  their  benefactors  which 
were  supposed  to  be  efficacious  in  saving  the  soul  from 
Hell  and  shortening  its  stay  in  Purgatory.   Hence  medie- 
val almsgiving  was  not  merely  charity ;  it  was  an  exchange 
of  services.    Bread,  clothing  and  shelter  were  traded  for 
prayers  and  credits  in  the  heavenly  ledger.     The  whole 
thing  was  very  much  like  a  commercial  transaction.     It 
was  an  economic  function  that  made  possible  the  extension 
of  relief  to  those  who  did  not  belong  to  one's  own  group. 
This  doctrine  of  the  religious  merit  of  almsgiving  was 
not  a  new  thing.    Just  when  it  first  appeared  is  not  certain, 
but  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  it  took  shape 
during  the  Babylonian  captivity  of  the  ancient  Hebrews. 
It  seems  that  some  of  the  Jews  showed  a  tendency  to  seek 
favor  among  their  masters,  neglecting  their  fellow  coun- 
trymen.   The  appeal  to  the  fear  of  Jehovah  was  part  of  a 
program  to  preserve  the  national  pride  and  group  spirit 
of  the  transported  people.     This  doctrine  which  almost 
certainly  grew  out  of  the  break-down  of  primary  group 
relations  was  perpetuated  by  the  Christian  Church  for 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  317 

similar  reasons.  So  long  as  the  Church  consisted  of  a 
relatively  small  number  of  people  who  had  a  great  deal 
in  common,  little  was  said  about  divine  favor  as  a  reward 
of  charity.  The  early  Church  was  essentially  a  primary 
group.  But  dissensions  between  those  who  spoke  Aramaic 
and  those  whose  language  was  Greek  gave  rise  to  the 
appointment  of  deacons  to  look  out  for  those  in  need. 
With  the  further  growth  in  numbers  and  heterogeneity,  it 
was  found  desirable  to  emphasize  the  idea  that  God 
rewards  the  benevolent,  and  this  teaching  appears  over  and 
over  again  in  the  writings  of  the  Church  Fathers. 

With  the  "Fall  of  Rome"  and  still  more  with  the 
break-up  of  Charlemagne's  Empire,  European  society 
became  decentralized  and  came  to  consist,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  of  many  small,  (and  independent  except  for 
feudal  formalities)  groups.  It  was  the  influence  of  the 
Church  that  was  largely  responsible  for  changing  this 
situation.  The  belief  that  bodily  healing  and  religious 
merit  were  to  be  gained  through  visiting  holy  shrines  and 
through  helping  to  rescue  the  Holy  Land  from  the  infidels 
set  large  bodies  of  men  in  motion  and  detached  thousands 
from  their  primary  groups.  It  was  from  this  time  on  to  the 
Reformation  that  the  doctrine  of  the  religious  merit  of 
almsgiving  attained  greatest  prominence. 

The  abstractness  of  the  relations  between  the  givers 
and  the  recipients  of  alms  must  be  apparent.  The  central 
problem  was  not  even  the  relief  of  the  indigent,  much  less 
enabling  them  to  assume  a  normal  position  in  society,  but 
the  salvation  of  the  donors.  The  established  folk  saw  in  the 
wanderers  means  of  divine  grace  for  themselves.  The 
unfortunate  and  the  needy  were  regarded  as  an  asset! 
It  was  not  necessary  to  put  themselves  in  the  places  of  the 
poor,  unless  to  see  how  many  Paternosters  and  Avfe  Marias 


318  SOCIAL  WORK 

they  would  offer  in  return  for  a  given  donation.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  beggars  saw  in  the  rich  simply  possible 
sources  of  food  and  clothing.  On  neither  side  was  there 
recognition  of  human  personality  in  its  richness  and 
fullness.  The  mental  image  was  a  highly  refined  abstrac- 
tion rather  than  a  recognition  of  man  as  man. 

Even  more  important  than  the  abstractness  of  the 
relations  is  the  fact  that  social  relations  were  being 
extended.  In  this  development  the  religious  merit  of 
almsgiving  was  only  one  of  several  factors.  Probably 
far  more  important  was  the  growth  of  commerce  which 
was  stimulated  by  the  crusades.  The  exchange  of  goods 
required  trips  by  land  and  sea  and  the  establishment  of 
trading  centres.  So  towns,  which  had  been  well-nigh 
non-existent  during  the  earlier  middle  ages  began  to  spring 
up.  With  increased  commerce  came  the  manufacture  of 
goods  for  exchange.  As  a  consequence  the  towns  became 
larger  and  acquired  a  more  heterogeneous  population. 
Thus  there  was  being  built  up  a  new  social  framework, 
much  more  extensive  than  any  medieval  group,  but  with 
social  relations  more  attenuated  and  abstract.  The  towns- 
people had  certain  things  in  common,  but  many  aspects  of 
life  they  did  not  share.  It  was  primarily  business  rela- 
tions with  which  they  were  concerned. 

But  they  did  take  some  account  of  each  other  as  human 
beings  and  undertook  to  look  out  for  each  other  by  means 
that  became  more  and  more  organized.  The  early  munici- 
pal charities  were  more  personal  than  the  indiscriminate 
almsgiving  that  preceded  and  accompanied  them;  at  the 
same  time  they  were  less  personal  than  the  mutual  aid  of 
simpler  groups.  This  is  what  we  might  expect,  for  the 
whole  life  of  these  new  social  structures  was  made  up  of 
more  intimate  relations  than  those  between  members  of  a 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  319 

group  and  outsiders,  but  it  was  less  personal  than  the  rela- 
tions between  members  of  smaller  groups  where  there  was 
much  greater  community  of  interest. 

But  the  towns  themselves  were  exclusive  and  looked 
out  for  their  own  citizens  chiefly,  if  not  solely.  It  was  the 
development  of  the  modern  nations  from  the  sixteenth 
century  onward  that  created  a  still  more  extensive,  even  if 
more  attenuated  social  order.  Just  as  the  towns  could  not 
long  be  sufficient  unto  themselves  commercially  and 
industrially,  neither  could  they  alone  solve  the  problems 
of  poverty.  It  remained  for  the  nations  to  undertake 
those  measures  made  necessary  by  increasing  mobility. 

This  same  process  has  been  carried  still  farther  by  the 
Industrial  Revolution.  The  development  of  large-scale 
industry,  the  division  of  labor  and  the  simplification  of 
individual  tasks  have  made  it  possible  for  the  worker  to 
find  a  place  in  almost  any  industrial  community.  The  size 
of  the  establishments,  the  lack  of  personal  contacts 
between  employers  and  employes,  the  displacement  of 
names  by  numbers,  and  the  impersonal  character  of  the 
pay  envelope  mean  still  further  removal  from  the  situation 
in  which  relations  between  men  are  intimate  and  concrete. 

The  tremendous  growth  of  cities  in  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries  and  the  improved  means  of  transpor- 
tation have  also  contributed  greatly  to  the  mobility  and 
anonymity  of  modern  life.  Concrete  relations  may  be 
preserved,  but  they  constitute  a  smaller  and  smaller  pro- 
portion of  those  in  which  our  life  consists.  Hence  we 
seem  to  be  getting  farther  and  farther  away  from  the 
simple  group  organization  of  the  middle  ages  where  there 
was  poverty  but  not  pauperism,  mutual  aid  but  not  charity. 

The  humanitarian  movements  of  the  nineteenth  century 
represent  in  one  aspect  an  attempt  to  overcome  the  growing 


320  SOCIAL  WORK 

abstractness  of  social  relations,  but  in  their  original  form 
they  were  bound  to  fail,  for  charity  as  such  always 
involves  an  abstraction.  The  poor  cannot  enter  completely 
into  the  group  life,  because  the  best  of  relief  does  not  re- 
move the  causes  of  destitution.  Moreover,  there  is  the 
consciousness  of  a  gift  from  the  successful  and  the 
provident  to  those  unable  to  care  for  themselves. 
Whether  the  gift  be  from  an  individual  or  from  the  com- 
munity— and  the  latter  is  certainly  more  democratic  than 
the  former — it  implies  a  distinction  between  the  capable 
and  the  inferior.  Not  charity,  but  social  insurance,  free 
compulsory  education,  and  all  those  things  that  will  go  to 
make  complete  political  and  industrial  democracy,  can 
break  down  class  lines  and  give  everyone  an  equal  part  in 
our  common  life. 

Charity  thus  means  a  second  sort  of  abstraction.  It 
implies  that  something  is  wrong  with  the  political  and 
industrial  system.  It  indicates  the  recognition  of  the  lack 
of  a  completely  human  situation.  But  it  means  an  accept- 
ance of  the  existing  economic  arrangements,  with  an  effort 
to  attain  more  intimate  relations  outside  of  the  economic 
phase  of  activity.  The  employer,  charity  organization 
society,  or  nation  which  strives  to  relieve  poverty  and 
misery  without  going  into  the  economic  and  other  causes  is 
unconsciously  or  deliberately  separating  one  aspect  of  life 
from  another.  He  or  it  is  literally  performing  an 
abstraction.  He  is  considering  one  phase  of  the  social 
process  without  reference  to  the  whole  of  which  it  is  a  part. 

Some  social  workers  are  trying  to  revive  simple  group 
life  by  organizing  city  blocks,  neighborhoods,  commun- 
ities, etc.  But  it  is  clear  that  we  can  never  go  back  to 
anything  like  the  simplicity,  intimacy  and  local  solidarity 
of  the  medieval  world.  Even  if  we  could,  we  should 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION  321 

probably  lose  more  than  we  should  gain.  By  its  mobility, 
anonymity  and  individualism  the  modern  world  has 
divided  up  its  work  so  that  each  of  us  is  dependent  upon 
the  specialized  services  of  a  multitude  of  trades  and  pro- 
fessions. Through  these  we  have  achieved  higher 
standards  of  living  and  we  would  not  lightly  cast 
them  aside. 

But  an  acceptance  of  larger  and  larger  groups  with 
their  necessarily  attenuated  and  more  or  less  abstract 
relations  as  circles  of  truly  human  cooperation ;  with  each 
one's  primary  group  a  unique  but  not  exclusive  thing; 
and  with  every  member  of  the  larger  group  a  potential 
member  of  the  primary  group  involves  the  establishment 
of  a  profession  to  render  specific  services  without  ref- 
erence to  the  division  of  men  into  little  groups.  Social 
work  to-day  cannot  be  mutual  aid  within  primary  groups, 
for  such  groups  in  the  sense  of  limited,  isolated  and 
exclusive  communities  have  ceased  to  bound  our  essential 
relationships.  As  the  charity  of  one  group  extended 
to  another,  or  of  a  group  to  detached  individuals,  it  is 
out  of  harmony  with  the  democratic  spirit  of  the  age, 
and  seems  certain  to  fail  because  of  the  reaction  against 
it.  As  professional  public  service  available  to  everybody 
it  will  have  an  important  place  in  the  twentieth  century. 

Just  because  of  the  complexity  of  modern  civilization, 
we  are  not  likely  to  see  the  day  when  everyone  will  be 
completely  and  harmoniously  adjusted  in  his  social  rela- 
tions. As  far  ahead  as  we  can  see  there  will  be  people 
whose  family  relations  will  break  down,  people  who  do  not 
get  on  with  their  fellow  workmen,  people  who  misunder- 
stand and  are  misunderstood  by  their  neighbors,  people 
who  need  to  break  with  old  associates  and  to  form  new 
friends,  and  others  who  too  greatly  subordinate  the  com- 

21 


322  SOCIAL  WORK 

mon  welfare  to  the  gain  of  themselves,  their  families  or 
cliques.  To  help  such  folk  find,  revise,  or  restore  their 
place  in  society  is  the  distinctive  task  of  the  social  worker. 
It  is  just  as  dignified  and  just  as  important  as  the  work  of 
the  lawyer  whose  function  is  the  adjustment  of  formal, 
legal  relations,  or  of  the  physician  who  attends  to  our 
physical  needs.  It  is  not  merely,  nor  chiefly,  the  failure  of 
charity  that  calls  for  this  new  type  of  social  work.  It  is 
the  demands  of  democracy  and  of  science  that  make  it 
imperative  that  social  work  achieve  professional  standing. 
And  social  work,  as  distinguished  from  general  civic 
activity,  will  become  a  profession,  worthy  of  a  place  in 
the  twentieth  century,  when  it  is  performed  by  democrati- 
cally organized  groups  of  scientifically  trained  specialists 
whose  skilled  services  are  at  the  disposal  of  democratically 
organized  communities  and  states. 


INDEX 


Addams,  Jane,  134 

Almsgiving,   167-8,  215,  221   ff.f 

237 
Amalgamation  of  social  agencies, 

45-8 

American  Association  for  Organ- 
izing Family  Social  Work,  34, 
40,  in 

American  Child  Hygiene  Associ- 
ation, 32,  51 

American  Prison  Association,  33 

American  Red  Cross,  23,  32,  34-6, 

53,  »6 

Apprenticeship,  21,  25,  138 
Ashley,  W.  J.,  183 

Barnett,  Canon,  132-3 

Begging,  168-171,  183,  221-6,  237, 

259 

Benedict,  235 
Binet-Simon  tests,  157-8 
Blind,  155,  261 
Bolt,  Dr.  Richard  A.,  32 
Bosanquet,  Bernard,  204 
Boston,  22,  53,  no,  115,  135,  152 
Bourgeoisie,  79-82,   101,   120-123, 

130-1,  201 
Buffalo,  i  lo-ii  i 

Cabot,  Dr.  R.  C,  115 

California,  37,  45-6,  56 

Case  conference,  113 

Case  method,  114-7 

Catholic  Church,  23,  152,  177, 
215  ff.,  230  ff.,  see  also  National 
Catholic  Welfare  Council 


Catholic  Protectory,  153 
Central  registration,  112 
Chambers  of  Commerce,  39,  125, 

281 

Charities    endorsement    commit- 
tees, 39-40 

/'Charity,  61-4,  226-8,  320 
Charity   organization    movement, 

103  ff. 

Charlemagne,  238,  239 
Child  Labor,  158-160 
Child-placing,  148-150,  196 
Child    Welfare,    37,    51-2,    53-4, 

145  ff.,  195-6,  233,  238,  262 
Children's  Bureau,  51,  67,  161 
Chrysostom,  218-220 
Church  Fathers,  217-220 
Chicago,  22,   39,   115,   134 
Chicago,  University  of,  23 
Cities,  growth  of,  77 
City  planning,  127 
Cleveland,  43-44 
Coit,  Stanton,  134 
College  settlement,  134-5 
Conant  Thread  Co.,  96 
Confidential  exchange,  112 
Confraternities,  288-290 
Constantine,    234 
Constructive  work,  68-9 
Cooley,  Chas.  H.,  68,  308 
Cooperative    Education    Associa- 
tion of  Virginia,  32 
Cooperative   movement,   57-9,  69 
Correlation    of    social    agencies, 

31  ff.,  112,  161 

Councils  of  social   agencies,  40- 
42 

S23 


324 


INDEX 


County  children's  homes,  150 
Craft  gilds,  283-288 
Credit,   59,   243~4 
Crusades,   240 

Deaf,    155,   261 

Definition  of  social  work,  17-9, 

28 
Delinquents,  work  with,  115,  154- 

155 
Democracy,    26-7,    56,    63,    64-5, 

88,   QO,    101,    142,    196-7,    200-2, 

226-8,   321-2 

Denison,  Edward,  132 

Domestic  system  of  industry,  75, 
78-9,  172-4 

Disorganization,  see  Social  dis- 
organization 

Dunning,    Ralph,    187 

Education,    52,    59-6i,    69,    98-9, 

137,  160,  see  also  Training  for 

social  work 
Elberfeld,  103-6 
Employers'  liability,  55 
Employers'    welfare    work,    see 

Industrial  welfare  work 
Enclosures   of   farm  land,   I74-6* 
Endorsement  of  charities,  38-40 
England,  76-7,  131-3,  158,  165  ff., 

220,   222-4,   250    ff.,   297,   299, 

302 

Farming-out  the  poor,  190 
Federal   departments,   51,   53,  97 
Federation    of    woman's    clubs, 

32 
Federations    of    social    agencies, 

42-5 
Feebleminded,  155-8,  195-6 


Feudalism,   171-7,  234-5,   236 
Financial    federations,  42-5 
France,  155-6,  170,  222,  260,  300 

-I,  302 

Fresno   County,   California,  45-6 
Frey,  John  P.,   101 
Friendly  visitors,   113 

George    Junior    Republic,    152-3 

Germany,   103-6,   293,  296-7 

Gilds,  281   ff.,  293-5 

Girard  College,  147 

Gompers,  Samuel,  100 

Great  Britain,  56,  58,  91-4,  159, 

165   ff.,  see  also  England 
Gregory  the  Great,   235-6 

Hamburg-Elberfeld  system,  103-6 
Handicapped  children,  155-8 
Hart,    Hastings    H.,    146,    153 
Health,  97,  237-8,  see  also  Public 

health   work 

Henry    Street    Settlement,    136 
Hill,    Octavia,    121,    123,    124-5 
Home-finding,  148-150 
Hospitality,  232-3 
Hospital  orders,  242-3 
Hospital  social   work,   115-6 
Hospitals,  medieval,  249   ff.,  299    ' 

-301 

Housing   reform,    119    ff.,    184-5 
Houston,  Texas,  45 
Howe,    Samuel    G.,    156-7 
Hull  House,   134 
Humane  societies,   149 
Humanitarianism,  75,  86-8,   120- 

3,  I30-I 

Illinois     Children's     Home     and 
Aid  Society,  149 


INDEX 


325 


Illinois  Steel  Co.,  96 
Industrial  Revolution,  75  ff. 
Industrial   schools    for   wayward 

children,  152,  153 
Industrial   welfare   work,   90   ff. 
Insane,  171,  195-6,  260-1 
Institutions,    see    Hospitals,    Or- 
phanages,    Industrial    schools, 
Workhouses,    Xenodochia,    etc. 
Institutional   churches,    136 
Insurance,    see    Social    insurance 
Intercollegiate    Community    Ser- 
vice Association,  135 
Iowa,  46 
Italy,  292,  300-1 

Jewish  social  work,  43 
Juvenile  courts,  I54r5 

Kansas  Gty  Board  of  Public 
Welfare,  47 

Labor  colleges,  139 

Labor  legislation,  53-6,  69 

Laissez-faire,   81 

Lamprecht,  Karl,   10 

Legislation,  38-9,  53-6,  56-7,  125 
~7,  154-5.  150-160,  161,  183  ff. 

Limited  dividend  housing  com- 
panies, 124 

London,  106-9,  "9.  120-1 

Los    Angeles,    38-9 

Ludlow  Manufacturing  Associ- 
ates, 95-6 

McLean,  Francis  H.,  41 
Manor,  272-276 
Massachusetts,   151,  153,   154 
Mead,  Geo.  H.,  68,  308 
Medical  social  work,  115-6 


Medieval  philosophy, 

Mental   defectives,    155-8 

Merchant  gilds,  281-3 

Michigan,   150 

Middle  class,  see  Bourgeoisie 

Ministry  of  Labour,  206-7 

Mobility,  85,  166,  188-9,  195,  268 

-272 

Modern  Health  Crusaders,  32,  51 
Monasteries,  177-9,  235,  237,  241 

—242 

Mont-de-Piete,   243-4 
More,   Sir   Thomas,   176 
Mothers'   pensions,    151 
Motives,  50,  86-8,  113,  120-3,  130 

-I,  136,  145,  189,  215  ff.,  235 

-6,  239-240,  245-7,  252-6,  258- 

9»  275-6,  288-9 

Municipal  departments,  38-9,  47 
Municipal  granaries,  298-9 
Mutual  aid,  275-9,  282,  286-200 

National  Catholic  Welfare  Coun- 
cil, 33 

National  Child  Labor  Committee, 
159 

National  Committee  for  Mental 
Hygiene,  52-3 

National  Conference  of  Social 
Work,  33,  114 

National  Investigation  Bureau,  40 

National  Organization  for  Public 
Health  Nursing,  36 

National  organizations,  32  ff. 

National  Service  School  for 
Women,  247 

National  Tuberculosis  Associ- 
ation, 32,  36,  51 

Nationalism,   170,   179-180 

Neighbourhood   Guild,    134 

New  Testament,  217 


INDEX 


New  York  Children's  Aid  Soci- 
ety, 148 

New  York  City,  21,  log,  119,  121 
-3,  125,  134,  135,  136,  152 

New  York  Orphanage,  147 

New  York  School  of  Social 
Work,  21 

New  York  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  cruelty  to  children, 
149-150 

N.  O.  Nelson  Co.,  94-5 

North  Carolina,  46-7 

Ohio,    115,    150,    153 
Old  Age  Pensions,  207-8 
Old  Testament,  216 
Oregon,  54 

Orphanages,  145-7,  15° 
Owen,  Robert,   58,  92 

Papal  indulgences,  220-1 

Parish,  183  ff.,  276-8 

Parole,    153-4 

Peacedale  Mfg.  Co.,  94,  96-7 

Pensions,  99-100,  151,  207-8 

Persecutions,  230-4 

Philadelphia,   no,   in,   115,   147, 

152 

Philanthropic    Trust   Funds,    123 
Primary  group  life,  230-4,   267, 

268    ff.,    278-9,    283-6,    312-5 
Probation,   154 
Professional  training,   10-24 
Proletariat,  79-80,  82-4 
Protestant    Reformation,    180-1, 

245-7 
Public  health  work,  36,  50-3, 

161 
Public    welfare,    Boards    of,    47 


Recreation,  98,  137 

Red    Cross,    see    American    Red 

Cross 
Relation  of  Social  work  to  other 

vocations,  17-8,  19-20,  24,  28-9 
Religious  gilds,  288-290 
Religious  merit  of  almsgiving,  215 

ff.,  252-4,  288-290,  316-7 
Repressive     measures,      168-170, 

183-4,  295-8 

Richmond,  Mary  E.,  in 
Robinson,  James  Harvey,  9 
Russell  Sage  Foundation,  40,  in, 

116 

St.  Louis,  40,  41 

School  hygiene,  52 

Science,  65-8,  see  also  Social 
science 

Seignobos,  Charles,   10 

Serfdom,  234-5 

Settlement  Acts,  188,  195 

Settlements,    130   ff. 

Simmons  College  School  of  So- 
cial Work,  22 

Social  centres,  139-140 

Social  disorganization  the  occa- 
sion for  social  work,  18,  28, 
84-6,  131,  145,  165-181,  200,  232, 
236,  240-1,  315-320 

Social    insurance,    56-7,    208-211 

Social  science,  25-8,  67-8,  116-7 

Social  unit,  140-2 

Socialism,  65,  83-4,  132,  201 

Societies  for  prevention  of  cruelty 
to  children,  149-150 

South   End   House,    135 

Spain,  155,  160-170,  260,  261 

State  conferences,  34 

State  departments,  32,  36-8 


INDEX 


337 


State  schools  for  needy  children, 

150-1 
Supervision   of   private  agencies, 

257 
Switzerland,  295-6 

Tasks  of  social  work,  84-6 

Tendencies  in  social  work  sum- 
marized, 10,  29,  31,  48,  50,  68- 
9,  oo-i,  103,  117,  128,  143,  158, 
161,  165-6,  197-8,  262-3,  307-8, 
321-2 

Thomas,  W.  I.,  68,  117 

Towns,  medieval,  292  ff. 

Trade  unionism,  64-5,  83,  100-1, 
201-2 

Training  for  social  work,  20-4, 
138,  247 

Transportation  agreement,   114 

Toynbee,   Arnold,   133 

University   extension,   138 
University  Settlement,  134 

Vagrants,  196 
Vincent  de  Paul,  247 


Virginia,  32,  42 
Vives,  Juan   Louis,   303-4 
Vocational  guidance,  59,  116 
Volkerwanderung,    234,    236 

Wage  subsidies,   191-2 
Wald,  Lilian  D.,  136 
Waltham  Watch  Co.,  94 
War  chests,  44-5 
War  Risk  Insurance,  57 
Wayward  children,   151-5 
Webb,  Sidney  and  Beatrice,  195, 

197-8,  204-5,  210 
Widows'   pensions,    151 
Woods,  Robert  A.,  135 
Workers  in  training,  21 
Workhouse,    189 

Xenodochium,   235,  238,   249 

Young  Men's  Oiristian  Associ- 
ation, 32 

Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, 32 

Ypres,  303-4 

Zoning,  128 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 

COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


RE(TD  COL  US. 

'<JUN    5 1973 


REC'D  COL.  LID. 


JUL221969 


NOV  3  013721 


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.1     fc-  1 


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